s 


% 


'V- 

<£?  Q; 

-™  o 

C?  — 


j 


•sVlOS-ANGElfj> 


^•LIBRARY 

^     *? 


^l-UBRARY 

^  irir 


^^ 
y<?Aav 


%a3A 


vvlOS-ANGEl% 


Mt 


THE 


INDIAN  AND  ANTIQUITIES 


OF 


AMERICA. 


.% 


BY 

BARNARD    SHIPP. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

SHERMAN    &    CO.,    PRINTERS. 

1897. 


1.  Ornament  fovmot  mTH*Ton<J>  of  Kouloba 

2.  El«tftnun"V»»«  for  p«rfumeo,  found. -ne«"IK«Quieen.'s  remains 
a.   Embousd.  (VorK,  runiMHj  roaMiT*** 


SCYTHIAN  RELICS  FOUND  IN  THE  TUMULUS. 


PREFACE. 


IMPRESSED  with  a  belief  that  many  persons  had  an  erroneous 
idea  regarding  the  tumuli  of  America,  I  undertook  to  show,  by 
giving  accounts  of  similar  works  scattered  over  Europe  and  Asia, 
that  such  monuments  were  not  peculiar  to  America.  The  collec- 
tion of  these  facts  led  me  to  other  considerations,  and  I  conceived 
the  idea  of  a  comparison  of  the  tumuli  and  ancient  monuments 
of  the  Old  World  with  those  of  the  New  World,  and  so  I  collected 
descriptions  of  some  of  the  most  remarkable  tumuli  and  ancient 
monuments  of  America.  As  I  advanced  the  prospect  enlarged, 
and,  considering  the  material  I  had  collected  would  serve  to  illus- 
trate history,  I  gathered  additional  facts  of  a  different  character 
to  use  in  connection  with  the  preceding,  to  demonstrate  that  an 
intercourse  existed  between  the  two  hemispheres  in  very  remote 
ages,  and  to  show  the  probable  origin  of  the  peoples  who  inhabited 
North  America  when  it  was  last  discovered  by  Europeans. 

The  title  of  this  book,  though  expressing  the  principal  subjects 
of  which  the  most  of  this  volume  consists,  yet  neither  of  INDIANS 
nor  of  ANTIQUITIES  does  it  give  a  full  account,  and  it  is  the  same  of 
the  other  subjects,  viz. :  the  remarkable  tumuli  and  monuments  of 
remote  antiquity  ;  the  most  ancient  navigation,  navies,  vessels,  voy- 
ages, colonies,  and  commerce  of  the  Old  World. 

The  information  on  the  great  variety  of  subjects  of  which  this 
book  treats  has  been  derived  from  divers  sources;  some  from 'the 
works  of  men  eminent  in  science;  some  from  the  narratives  of 
distinguished  and  reliable  travellers ;  some  from  the  histories  of 
celebrated  authors,  both  ancient  and  modern ;  and,  finally,  some 
from  the  accounts  of  recent  travellers  confirming  what  has  been 
related  by  those  who  had  preceded  them.  With  this  notice,  and 
a  reference  to  the  table  of  contents,  a  correct  idea  can  be  formed 

of  the  plan  and  object  of  this  work. 

* 


610285 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGE 

A  Siberian  Tumulus  and  its  Contents— The  Tumuli  of  Bouchtarma — 
Tumuli  in  Chinese  Tartary — Tumuli  in  the  Region  of  the  Lepsou 
River — Marco  Polo's  Account  of  the  Burial  of  the  Grand  Khans — The- 
Great  Plain  of  Central  Asia — Two  Remarkable  Tombs— The  Region 
of  the  Karatau — An  Immense  Ancient  Earthwork  and  Tumuli  on  the 
Lepsou — Grand  Mountain  Scenery  of  the  Karatau  and  the  Alatau — 
Fort  Kopal — Huge  Blocks  of  Stone  Erect  on  the  Kora — A  Remarkable 
Stone  Tumulus — The  Mineral  Springs  and  Baths  at  Arasan — The  Pass 
of  Karatau — The  Kirghis  Ranges — Large  Tumuli — An  Area  of  One 
Mile  by  Four  Covered  with  Tumuli,  .......  39 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Tumuli  of  Europe — Human  Sacrifices — The  Burial  Laws  of  Odin — 
The  Tumuli  of  Ireland — The  Tumulus  of  New  Grange — The  Tumulus 
of  Thyre  Danebod— The  Skip's  ^Elunger  or  Ship's  Tumulus — The 
Buried  Ship  of  Gokstad,  in  Norway — Tumuli  of  Britain,  of  Stone- 
henge,  of  Dorsetshire — The  Age  of  Celtic  Tumuli — Tumuli  of  Canter- 
bury ;  of  Cracow,  Poland — The  Tumulus  of  Kosiusko,  ...  48 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Stonehenge — Avebury — The  Gaelic  Monuments  of  France — Carnak,  .         .       56 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Serpent  Mound  of  Oban,  Scotland — Prehistoric  Remains  Near  the  Ser- 
pent Mound  of  Ohio — The  Kistvean — The  Loggan,  or  Rocking  Stone, 
of  Fordham,  New  York — Druidical  or  Sabian  Circles  in  Central  Arabia 
— Monumental  Stones  of  Algeria,  of  Constantine  and  Tripoli  in  Af- 
rica— Menhirs  of  Setiff— Monumental  Stones  of  Hindustan,  of  the 
Dekkan,  and  of  Southern  India,  ........  69 

CHAPTER  X. 

Tumuli  of  America — Peru  :  Religion — Deities — Huacas — Academies — As- 
tronomy— Division  of  Time — Festivals —Sacrifices — Navigation  of  the 
Peruvians,  of  the  Yucatans,  of  the  Floridians,  .  .  .  .  75 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Peru :  Guaquas — Copper  Axes— Temples— Fortresses — Pucaras— Burials — 

Tombs — Mummies,      ......         ....       89 

CHAPTER  XII. 

\L  Mexico  :  Aztec  Migration — Teocallis — Description  of  the  Great  Temple  of 
ff^  Mexico,  by  Bernal  Diaz — Mexican  Cannibals — The  Teocalli  of  Cozu- 
mel  and  Sempoalla— The  Victims  of  Sacrifice — The  Teocallis  of  Cho- 
lula — Their  Destruction — The  History  of  Cholula — Its  Great  Temple  — 
Teocallis  as  Forts— The  Capture  of  the  Great  Temple  of  Mexico — The 
Capture  of  the  Teocallis  of  Sempoalla, 99 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PAGE 

Mexico  :  The  Founding  of  the  Great  Temple — Description  of  It  by  Clavi- 
gero — Description  of  the  Temples  of  Teotihuacan  by  Brantz  Mayer — 
Humboldt's  Account  of  Teotihuacan,  Xochicalco,  Mitla  and  Papantla 
— The  Mexican  Hierarchy,  Monasteries,  Nunneries,  Sacrifices,  Offer- 
ings, Penances  and  Funerals — Fortifications,  .  .  .  .  .121 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Toltecas — Their  Migration,   Character,  Knowledge  of   Astronomy — 

Their  National  Extinction — Their  Dispersion,     .....     144 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Mexican  Chronology — The  Abbe  Don  Lorenzo  Herva's  Letter  to  the  Abbe 

Don  Francisco  Severio  Clavigero,  on  the  Mexican  Calendar,        .         .148 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Mexican  Festivals — The  Worship  of  Fire — Father  Garces  and  Font's  Visit 
to  the  Gila  and  the  Moqui  Country  in  1773— The  Rio  Grande  Basin — 
The  Pueblos  of  the  Rio  Grande,  Rio  Verde  and  Rio  Gila — Casa  Blanca 
or  Montezuma  and  Casa  Grande  of  the.  Gila — The  Casas  Grandes  of 
the  Rio  Casas  Grandes — New  Mexico,  when  First  Discovered — The 
Journey  of  Espejo  Through  New  Mexico  in  1582 — Its  Cities  and  Peo- 
ples in  1782,  .  .  . 158 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Abbe  Rrasseur  de  Bourbourg's  Observations  on  the  Civilized  Nations 

of  Mexico  and  Central  America,  ........     173 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

The  American  Indian,  by  Ulloa,  Croghan,  Carver  and  Charlevoix — The 
Opinions  of  Fathers  Gregorio  Garcia,  Joseph  de  Acosta,  John  de  Laet, 
Emanuel  de  Moraez,  George  de  Huron — Charlevoix's  Method  to  Dis- 
cover the  Earliest  and  the  Latest  Emigrants,  .....  184 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Tumuli — Ucita — Cafaciqui — Cartersville  Mounds  and  Idols — Casquin — 
Capaha — Breckenridge's  Description  of  Capaha — The  Tensas  Mounds 
—Tonti  and  the  Tensas  Indians — The  Destruction  of  their  Temple,  .  194 

CHAPTER  XX. 

The  Home  of  the  Natchez — Tonti' s  and  La  Salle's  Visit  to  the  Tensas  and 
the  Natchez,  in  1682— Iberville's  Visit  to  the  Natchez  in  April,  1700— 
Penicaut's  Account  of  the  Natchez  in  1700 — Du  Pratz's  Account  of  the 
Funeral  of  the  Great  Female  Sun — The  Religion  of  the  Natchez — 
Their  Government — Their  Feasts — Their  Temples,  and  the  Funeral 
of  the  Stung  Serpent, .  .206 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXL  PAGE 

The  Sultzertown  Mounds— The  Macon  Mounds— The  Flat  Heads,      .         .     224 

CHAPTEE  XXII. 

Views  of  a  Member  of  the  First  Congress — The  Works  on  Little  River,  in 
the  State  of  Georgia — Bartram's  Account  of  Them — Cullsate,  Sticoe  and 
Keowee — Ancient  Tombs  and  Fortifications  on  the  River  Huron,  or 
Bald  Eagle — Ancient  Works  near  Newark,  Ohio — Ancient  Fortifica- 
tions at  Marietta,  Ohio — The  Ancient  Works  at  Grave  Creek,  Virginia 
—Schoolcraft's  Visit  to  Them,  .  »  >  .  ^  .  * .  .  .  .231 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Brecken ridge's  Description  of  the  American  Bottom,  and  the  Mounds  of 
Cahokia  and  Saint  Louis — The  Mummies  of  Tennessee — The  Mounds 
near  St.  Charles,  Missouri — The  Trinity  Mounds  of  Louisiana,  .  .  251 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Bartram's  Account  of  the  Cherokees,  Muscogulges  and  Choctaws,       .         .     260 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

Indian  Burials,  Idols,  Mounds,  Terraces  and  Avenues,        ....     267 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Effigy  Mounds — The  Mounds  of  Wisconsin — The  Elephant  Mound — Ele- 
phants' Remains  at  Big  Bone  Lick,  Kentucky,  1735,  .  .  .  275 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

Captain  James  G.  Swan's  Account  of  the  Chanooks  and  Chahalis  of  "  the 
Northwest  Coast"  of  the  United  States — The  Antiquity  of  the  Ameri- 
can Continent — How  Long  Inhabited  by  Man — Origin  of  the  Human 
Race — The  Jargon  Language —  Peculiarities  of  Indian  Pronunciation,  279 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

The  Caraibs  the  Most  Expert  in  Maritime  Affairs  of  all  the  Savage  Inhab- 
itants of  America — Their  Vessels — Their  Navigation — The  Caracoli — 
The  Caraibs'  Skill  in  Manufactures — Toulola  or  Arrow- root  Their  Cure 
for  Wounds  Made  by  Poisoned  Arrows — The  Destruction  of  the 
Caraibs, .  .  .  .  .  .286 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

The   Mummies  of  Tennessee    and   of    Kentucky  —  Where  Found — How 

Dressed  and    How  Buried,         .         .         .        .         ...        .        .     297 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

PAGE 

!/  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchell  on  the  Varieties  of  the  Human  Race — The  Settle- 
ment of  America — The  High  Rock  Spring  of  Saratoga,  New  York,  an 
Evidence  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man — Lewis  H.  Morgan  on  Indian  Mi- 
gration, . 304 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Captain  John  Dundas  Cochran's  Account  of  Niskney  Kolymsk — Amuse- 
ments— Weather — Occupations — Animals— Baron  Wrangel's  Trip  to 
the  Fair  on  the  Aniuy — The  Yukagiri — The  Fortress — The  Chukche 
— The  Fair — Chess — Articles  of  Trade — Chukche  Chiefs — Reindeer — 
The  Chukche  Peninsula— Chukche, 312 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

The  Voyage  of  the  Vega — The  Northern  Coast  of  Asia — Chukches — The 
Northernmost  Capes  of  Asia — The  Onkilon — The  Winter  Quarters  of 
the  Vega — Chukche  Settlements — Chukche  Trade  and  Travel — Mam- 
moth Remains,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ...  322 

CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

The  Division  of  the  Chukches — Their  Population — Their  Burials,  Tents, 

Boats,  etc., 335 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

St.  Lawrence  Bay — Port  Clarence — Eskimos — Their  Implements,  Burials, 
etc. — Nephite — Ocean  Currents  —  The  Behring  Strait  Channel — 
Konyan  Bay  —  Geological  Features  —  Lawrence  Island  Eskimo — 
The  Discovery  of  Kamschatka  —  Peter  the  Great — Expeditions  to 
Kamschatka — The  First  Voyage  of  Behring,  .....  341 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 

v/The  Voyage  of  Marco  Polo  in  1291,  A.D. — Jewish  and  Egyptian  Types 
Among  Indians  in  America — The  Voyages  of  the  Norsemen,  860-1000 
A.D. — Their  Route  to  America — Their  Relics  on  Baffin's  Bay — The 
Voyage  of  Leif  Eirekson — The  Viking's  Vessel  of  Gokstad,  Norway 
— The  Voyage  of  Captain  Magnus  Andersen  to  America  on  the  "Vik- 
ing," 1893  A.D.,  .  . 353 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 

J  Ancient  Navigation,  Navies,  Vessels,  Crews  and  Voyages — The  Shipwreck 
of  St.  Paul — Egyptian,  Indian  and  Carthaginian  Ships — Their  Con- 
struction— The  Extent  of  Carthaginian  Navigation,  ....  365 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Ancient  Settlements — Idumeans — Omerites — Chuseens — Eastern  and  West- 
ern Sabians —  Arabia  Felix — Ophir — Diodorus's  Account  of  the  Sa- 
bians— Tartessa,  or  Tarsis  of  Cilicia,  and  of  Iberia,  ....  382 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

PAGE 

Ancient  Voyages — Canaanites  or  Sidonians — Voyages  from  Elath  and 
Ezion-Geber  to  Tarsis — Josephus  on  Solomon  and  Hiram — Phoenician 
Colonies — Diodorus's  Description  of  the  Country  of  Elath  and  Ezion- 
Geber,  and  the  Sinus  ^Elanitticus  —The  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians 
— Necho — Necho's  Canal  —Phoenicians  Sail  from  the  Red  Sea  Around 
Africa  to  Egypt — Commerce  Between  Egypt  and  India — The  Voyage 
of  Scylax  from  India  to  Egypt, .  389 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

Alexander  Prepares  to  Leave  India — The  Voyage  of  Nearchus  from  the 
Indus  to  the  Euphrates — The  Ichthyophagi — Whales — The  Coast  of 
Suza — Alexander  Sails  Up  the  Tigris — His  Great  Naval  Preparations 
at  Babylon — His  Grand  Scheme  of  Conquest,  Commerce,  Colonies, 
Expeditions — Ptolemy  Philadelphus — The  Indian  Voyage  and  Trade,  401 

CHAPTER  XL. 

Alexander's  Plans — The  Voyage  of  Hanno — Bougainville's  Comments  on 
the  Voyage  of  Hanno — Carthaginian  Colonies  in  Africa — Carthaginian 
Traffic  in  Africa — The  Gold  Mines  in  the  Regions  of  the  Senegal  and 
Rio-d'-Ouro — The  Voyages  and  Vessels  of  Columbus  —The  Nina — The 
Storm — The  Hurricane — The  Duration  of  the  Voyages  of  Columbus 
Across  the  Atlantic  Ocean — Humboldt's  Account  of  the  Route  from 
the  Canaries  to  Cumana — The  Voyage  of  Bligh  in  a  Launch,  .  .  417 

CHAPTER  XLI. 

Migrations,  and  Transmission  of  Names — The  Phoceans — Massalia — The 
Samians — Tartessus — The  Caravan  Route  from  Yarkand  te  Kara- 
Korum — The  Country  of  the  Mongols  and  Toltecans — The  Kalkas 
Tartars — Kara-Korum — Indian  Offshoots  from  Mexico — The  Aztec 
Route— Jefferson's  "Views  in  Regard  to  Indians" — Tepe — Mateo 
Tepe — Volney's  Account  of  Indians— Volney  and  Mishikinakwa,  or 
Little  Turtle— ^r.  Barton  on  Indian  Languages — Jefferson  on  Lan- 
guages— President  D.  S.  Jordan  on  the  Urgent  Need  of  a  National 
University,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  432 


From  copies  Drawn  by  Mr.  WILLIAM  TRABUE,  of  Louisville,  Kentucky. 


NO.       PAGE 
1 18 Peninsula  of  Kertch  or  Panticapseum. 

2 18 Plan  of  Kertch. 

3 25 Interior  of  the  Great  Tumulus  at  Kertch. 

4. ..Frontispiece. ..Scythian  Kelics  found  in  the'Tumulus. 

5 44 A  Great  Tumulus  near  Kopal. 

6 44 Kopal  and  Tumuli. 

7 56 Stonehenge. 

8 92 Adoratorie  of  Cayambe. 

9 92 The  Callo  Palace  of  the  Incas. 

10 94 The  Palace  and  Citadel  of  the  Incas. 

11 103 The  Great  Temple  of  Mexico. 

12 127 TheKuins  of  Teotihuacan. 

13 162 The  Casa  Grande  of  the  Gila. 

14 166 The  Pueblo  of  Hungo  Pavie. 

15 195 The  Tumuli  of  Cofacique. 

16 197 The  Tumuli  near  Cartersville,  Georgia. 

17 227 The  Tumuli  near  Macon,  Georgia. 

18 236 The  Earthworks  on  the  River  Huron,  Michigan. 

19 238 The  Earthworks  at  Newark,  Ohio. 

20 240 The  Earthworks  at  Marietta,  Ohio. 

21 341 Behring  Strait. 

22 362 The  Viking,  Model  of  the  Vessel  Buried  at  Gokstad,  Norway. 

23 426 The  Nina,  of  the  Squadron  of  Columbus  on  his  First  Voyage  to 

America. 


THE  INDIAN  AND  ANTIQUITIES 
OF  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Tumuli — Derivation  of  the  word  Tepe — The  Ancient  Uses  of  Tuinuli — 
Superstitious  Ideas  in  Eegard  to  Them — Serpent  Mounds — Serpent  Wor- 
ship— Sacred  Fires — The  Earliest  and  the  Latest  Tumuli — Different  Kinds 
of  Tumuli — Their  Age  and  Multitude. 

TUMULI,  a  name  generally  given  to  those  hillocks  or  mounds  of 
earth  which  were  anciently  erected  over  the  bodies  of  deceased 
heroes  or  persons  of  distinguished  character,  are  considered  by  a 
learned  antiquarian  as  the  most  ancient  sepulchral  monuments. 
This  mode  of  interment  may  be  traced  to  remotest  antiquity,  and 
the  religion  of  those  times  had  much  to  do  with  the  erection  of 
these  monuments,  as  the  earliest  records  of  these  times  plainly  in- 
dicate. And  as  religious  ideas  are  the  most  tenacious  and  most 
durable  that  possess  the  human  mind,  so  have  they  been  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation  through  many  thousands  of 
years ;  and  it  is  by  reference  to  these  religious  rites  that  some 
knowledge  can  be  acquired  of  their  construction,  and  the  motives 
and  purposes  of  their  erection,  and.  that  the  relations  of  different 
and  distant  nations  in  past  ages  may  be  traced  through  many 
centuries. 

Bryant,  in  his  "  Analysis  of  Ancient  Mythology,' '  treats  of  re- 
ligious rites  and  customs  in  their  relation  to  the  tumuli  of  the  Old 
World.  He  says  : 

"  Lower  Egypt  being  flat,  and  annually  overflowed,  the  natives 
were  forced  to  raise  the  soil  on  which  they  built  their  principal 
edifices,  in  order  to  secure  them  from  the  inundation  ;  and  many 
of  their  sacred  towers  were  erected  upon  conical  mounds  of  earth. 
But  there  were  often  hills  of  the  same  form  constructed  for  relig- 
ious purposes,  upon  which  there  was  no  building.  These  were 
very  common  in  Egypt.  Hence  we  read  of  Taphanes,  Taph-Osiris, 
Taph-Osiris-Parva,  and  contra  Taphias,  in  Antoninus,  all  of  this 
country.  In  other  parts  Taphiousa,  Tape,  Taphusa  Tapori, 
Taphus,  Taphorus,  Taphitis.  [Though  here  the  word  Tape — Tepe 

1 


2  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  I. 

— is  derived  from  taphos,  yet  it  is  probable  that  Tepe  is  an  aborigi- 
nal word.]  All  these  names  relate  to  high  altars,  upon  which  they 
used  oftentimes  to  offer  human  sacrifices." 

Typhen,  compounded  of  Tuph-On,  which  signifies  the  hill  or 
altar  of  the  Sun,  was  one  of  these.  Tophet  was  a  mount  of  this 
form.  "  They  have  built  the  high  places  of  Tophet,  which  is  in 
the  valley  of  the  son  of  Hinnon,  to  burn  their  sons  and  their 
daughters  in  the  fire."  "  They  have  built  also  the  high  places  of 
Baal,  to  burn  their  sons  with  fire  for  burnt  offerings  unto  Baal."* 
These  cruel  operations  were  generally  performed  upon  mounts  of 
this  sort,  which  from  their  conical  figure  were  named  Tuph  and 
Tupha.  It  seems  to  have  been  a  term  current  in  many  countries. 

"  The  Amonians,  when  they  settled  in  Greece,  raised  many  of 
these  Tupha  or  Tapha  in  different  places.  As  it  was  usual  in  an- 
cient times  to  bury  persons  of  distinction  under  heaps  of  earth 
formed  in  this  fashion,  these  Tapha  came  to  signify  tombs ;  and 
almost  all  the  sacred  mounds,  raised  for  religious  purposes,  were 
looked  upon  as  monuments  of  deceased  heroes.  Hence  Taph- 
Osiris  was  rendered  Taphos,  Tot/>o<;,  or  the  bury  ing- place  of  the 
God  Osiris ;  and,  as  there  were  many  such  places  in  Egypt  and 
Arabia  sacred  to  Osiris  and  Dionusus,  they  were  all  by  the  Greeks 
esteemed  places  of  sepulture.  The  tumulus  of  the  Latines  was 
mistaken  in  the  same  manner.  It  was  originally  a  sacred  hillock, 
and  was  often  raised  before  temples  as  an  altar.  In  process  of  time 
the  word  tumulus  was  in  a  great  measure  looked  upon  as  a  tomb ; 
and  tumulo  signified  to  bury.  The  Greeks  speak  of  numberless 
sepulchral  monuments,  which  they  have  thus  misinterpreted." 

"  These  supposed  places  of  sepulture  were  so  numerous  that 
Clemens  Alexandrinus  tells  us  they  were  not  to  be  counted.  But 
after  all,  these  Taphoi  were  not  tombs  but  conical  mounds  of  earth, 
on  which,  in  the  first  ages,  offerings  were  made  by  fire." 

These  learned  remarks  of  Bryant  are  interesting  and  instructive. 
They  show  the  great  age  and  the  great  multitude  of  ancient  ar- 
tificial mounds.  Some  were  erected  for  religious  purposes,  and 
others  as  tombs  and  monuments  of  heroes  and  illustrious  men. 
At  the  tombs  of  these  heroes  religious  ceremonies  were  sometimes 
performed,  and  sometimes  the  hero  was  even  deified ;  so  it  may  be 
said  some  of  these  mounds  partook  of  both  a  religious  and  a 
sepulchral  character.  Bryant  himself  says  "  that  it  was  usual  in 
ancient  times  to  bury  persons  of  distinction  under  heaps  of  earth 
in  this  fashion,"  that  is,  under  a  ''  conical  mound  of  earth.' '  Cheva- 

*  Jeremiah,  c.  7,  v.  31,  and  c.  19,  v.  5. 


CHAP.  I.]  OF    AMERICA.  3 

Her,  in  his  "  Description  of  the  Plains  of  Troy,"  says  :  "  Mr.  Bryant 
has  endeavored  to  prove  that  the  Greeks  were  mistaken  in  sup- 
posing what  were  sacred  mounds  to  be  the  tombs  of  heroes.  But 
the  concurrent  testimony  of  Homer  and  all  antiquity  is  sufficient 
to  convince  us  that  they  had  no  other  way  of  preserving  their 
ashes  than  by  depositing  them  under  these  hillocks.  Barrows  of 
a  similar  shape  and  of  the  same  sort  are  to  be  found  in  all  ceme- 
teries, and  wherever  any  trouble  has  been  taken  to  ransack  them, 
the  remains  of  human  bones  have  always  been  found  within  them. 
Some  few  of  them  might  be  particularly  consecrated  to  the  ceremo- 
nies of  religion,  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  greatest  number 
was  destined  to  the  purpose  of  containing  the  ashes  of  heroes  and 
other  great  men." 

Bryant  says,  "  When  towers  were  situated  upon  eminences  fash- 
ioned very  round  they  were,  by  the  Amonians,  called  Tith,  which 
answers  to  Ti  TBrj  and  Tt  TBoq  of  the  Greeks.  They  were  so  de- 
nominated from  their  resemblance  to  a  woman's  breast  and  were 
particularly  sacred  to  the  deities  of  light.  Mounds  of  this  nature 
are  often  termed  from  their  resemblance  p.aaToeidfj.^  ^o?. 

"  These  mounds,  tophoi  mastoides,  were  not  only  in  Greece,  but 
in  Egypt,  Syria,  and  most  parts  of  the  world.  They  were  gen- 
erally formed  by  art ;  being  composed  of  earth  raised  very  high, 
which  was  sloped  gradually  and  with  great  exactness  :  and  the 
top  of  all  was  crowned  with  a  fair  tower.  The  situation  of  these 
buildings  caused  them  to  be  looked  upon  as  places  of  great  safety, 
and  the  reverence  in  which  they  were  held  added  to  their  security. 
On  these  accounts  they  were  the  repositories  of  much  wealth  and 
treasure.  There  were  often  two  of  these  mounds  of  equal  height 
in  the  same  enclosure.  The  Mezraim  called  these  hills  Typhon. 
In  these  temples  the  sun  was  principally  adored,  and  the  rites  of 
fire  celebrated.  The  ground  set  apart  for  such  use  was  generally 
oval,  and  towards  one  extremity  of  the  long  diameter,  as  it  were  in 
the  focus,  were  these  mounds  and  towers  erected.  They  were 
termed  Tarchon,  which  by  corruption  was  in  later  times  rendered 
Trachon.  There  were  two  hills  of  this  denomination  near  Damas- 
cus. These  were  hills  with  towers.  Solomon  takes  notice  of  a  hill 
of  this  sort  upon  Lebanon  looking  towards  Damascus.*  The  term 
Trachon  seems  to  have  been  still  further  sophisticated  by  the 
Greeks,  and  expressed  Dracon,  from  whence  in  a  great  measure 
arose  the  notion  of  treasures  being  guarded  by  Dragons.  Such  are 
the  poetical  representations ;  but  the  history  at  bottom  relates  to 

*  Canticles,  c.  7,  v.  4. 


4  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  I 

sacred  towers,  dedicated  to  the  symbolical  worship  of  the  serpent, 
where  there  was  a  perpetual  watch,  and  a  light  ever  burning.  The 
Titanian  temples  were  stately  edifices  erected,  in  Chaldea,  as  well 
as  in  Lower  Egypt,  upon  mounds  of  earth. 

"The  ancients  sometimes  wilfully  misrepresented  things,  in 
order  to  create  wonder.  Iphicrates  relates  that  in  Mauritania  there 
were  dragons  of  such  extent  that  grass  grew  upon  their  backs.  It 
is  said  of  Taxiles,  a  mighty  prince  of  India,  and  a  rival  of  Porus, 
that  upon  the  arrival  of  Alexander  the  Great,  he  showed  him  every- 
thing that  was  in  his  country  curious,  and  which  could  win  the 
attention  of  a  foreigner.  Among  other  things,  he  carried  him  to 
see  a  dragon,  which  was  sacred  to  Dionusus,  and  itself  esteemed  a 
god.  It  was  of  a  stupendous  size,  being  in  extent  equal  to  five 
acres;  and  resided  in  a  low  deep  place,  walled  to  a  great  height. 
The  Indians  offered  sacrifices  to  it,  and  it  was  daily  fed  by  them 
from  their  flocks  and  herds,  which  it  devoured  at  an  amazing 
rate :  that  it  was  treated  rather  as  a  tyrant  than  a  benevolent  deity. 
Two  dragons  of  a  like  nature  are  said  to  have  resided  in  the 
mountains  of  Abisares,  or  Abiosares,  in  India ;  the  one  was  eighty 
cubits  in  length,  the  other  one  hundred  and  forty.*  Similar  to 
the  above  is  the  account  given  by  Posidonius  of  a  serpent  which 
he  saw  in  the  plains  of  Macra,  a  region  in  Syria ;  and  he  says  it 
was  about  an  acre  in  length,  and  of  a  thickness  so  remarkable 
that  two  persons  on  horseback,  when  they  rode  on  the  opposite 
sides,  could  not  see  one  another.  Each  scale  was  as  big  as  a 
shield,  and  a  man  might  ride  into  its  mouth.  What  can  this 
description  allude  to  but  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  Ophite  temple, 
which  is  represented  in  this  enigmatical  manner  to  raise  admira- 
tion. The  plains  of  Macra  were  not  far  from  Mount  Lebanon 
and  Hermon,  where  the  Hevites  resided,  and  where  serpent  wor- 
ship particularly  prevailed.  The  Indian  dragon  seems  to  have 
been  of  the  same  nature.  It  was  probably  a  temple  and  its 
environs,  where  a  society  of  priests  resided,  and  worshipped  the 
Deity  under  the  semblance  of  a  serpent.  The  python  of  Par- 
nassus is  well  known,  which  Apollo  is  supposed  to  have  slain. 
After  all,  this  dragon  was  a  serpent  temple;  a  tumbos  formed  of 
earth." 

Plutarch  takes  notice  that  in  the  temple  of  Amon  there  was  a 
light  continually  burning.  The  like  was  observable  in  the 
temples  of  the  Egyptians.  Pausanias  mentions  the  lamp  of 
Minerva  Polias,  at  Athens,  which  never  went  out ;  the  same  custom 

*  "Strabo,"  1.,  15. 


CHAP.  I.]  OF    AMERICA.  5 

was  kept  up  in  most  of  the  Prutaneia.*  The  Chaldeans  and  Per- 
sians had  sacred  hearths  on  which  they  preserved  perpetual  fire. 
In  the  temple  of  Apollo  Carneus,  at  Gyrene,  the  fire  upon  the 
altar  was  never  suffered  to  be  extinguished.  A  like  account  is 
given  by  Said  Ebn  Batrick  of  the  sacred  fire  which  was  preserved 
in  the  great  temple  at  Aderbain  in  Armenia.  A  nation  in  India 
called  Caimachitae  had  large  Puratheia,  and  maintained  a  per- 
petual fire.  According  to  the  Levitical  law  a  constant  fire  was  to 
be  kept  up  upon  the  altar  of  God.f  The  Roman  Catholics  keep 
lights  continually  burning  before  their  altars. 

"  Towers  of  this  sort  were  often  consecrated  to  the  Ophite  deity 
called  Opis  and  Oupis.  The  temple  was  called  Kir-Upis,  which 
the  Greeks  abridged  to  Grupes ;  and  finding  many  of  the  Amonian 
temples  in  the  north  with  the  device  of  a  winged  serpent  upon  the 
frontal,  they  gave  this  name  to  the  hieroglyphic.  Hence,  prob- 
ably, arose  the  notion  of  Gryphons — Grupes,  which  like  the  dragons 
were  supposed  to  be  guardians  of  treasures,  and  to  never  sleep. 
The  real  conservators  of  the  wealth  were  the  priests.  They  kept 
up  a  perpetual  fire,  and  an  unextinguished  light  in  the  night. 
From  Ker  Upis,  the  place  of  his  residence,  a  priest  was  named 
Grupes.  The  poets  have  represented  grupes  as  animals  of  the 
serpentine  kind,  and  supposed  them  to  have  been  in  countries  of 
the  Arimasphians,  Alazonians,  Hyperboreans,  Scythic  nations  of 
the  same  family,  and  other  northern  regions  which  the  Amonians 
possessed." 

This  name,  Amonian,  Bryant  applies  to  the  descendants  of  Ham. 
He  says :  "  They  were  all  of  the  line  of  Ham,  who  was  held  by 
his  posterity  in  the  highest  veneration.  They  called  him  Amon, 
and  have  in  process  of  time  raised  him  to  a  divinity ;  they  worship 
him  as  the  sun,  and  from  his  worship  they  were  styled  Amonians. 
Under  this  denomination  are  included  all  of  this  family ;  whether 
they  were  Egyptians  or  Syrians,  of  Phenicia,  or  of  Canaan. 
There  once  existed  a  wonderful  resemblance  in  the  rites,  cus- 
toms and  terms  of  worship  among  nations  widely  separated. 
This  similitude  of  terms,  and  the  religious  system  which  was  so 
widely  propagated,  were  owing  to  one  great  family  who  spread 
themselves  almost  universally.  Their  colonies  went  abroad  under 
the  sanction  of  their  priests,  and  carried  with  them  both  the  rites 
and  the  records  of  their  country."! 

*  Prutaneia,  Temple  of  Vesta,  where  the  sacred  fire  was  kept.  Puratheia, 
Persian  fire  temple.  t  Leviticus,  c.  6,  v.  13. 

£  Bryant's  "Analysis  of  Ancient  Mythology." 


6  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  I. 

This  opinion  of  Bryant  that  one  family  and  its  colonies  and 
descendants  spread  their  religious  ideas  and  rites  over  the  whole 
world  may  appear  plausible  to  many,  but  the  nature  of  man  has 
been  the  same  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  climes.  The  same  sun  that 
shone  for  the  Persians  shone  also  for  the  Peruvians,  and  they  both 
worshipped  it.  There  is  no  more  perfect  symbol  of  the  sun  than 
fire,  and  they  both  adopted  it, 

Earthern  pottery  has  been  made  by  nearly  all  the  nations  of  the 
world,  and  in  all  ages,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  refer  all  these  to 
one  and  the  same  origin.  The  same  necessity  and  the  same  ma- 
terial were  the  origin  of  the  earthern  utensils  of  the  Old  World  and 
of  the  New. 

Because  a  god  of  war  was  worshipped  in  Mexico,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  trace  its  origin  to  Mars,  in  order  to  account  for  the  idolatry 
of  the  Mexicans. 

But  notwithstanding  all  this,  religious  ideas,  rites,  and  cere- 
monies have  been  transmitted  from  nation  to  nation  through  a 
long  succession  of  ages.  While  we  find  in  the  Old  World  the  his- 
torical record  of  these  facts,  the  New  World  presents  the  material 
evidence  of  a  similar  transmission. 

Tumuli,  or  ancient  artificial  mounds,  are  found  almost  every- 
where where  the  human  race  has  inhabited.  They  are  found  in 
America  in  various  places,  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  Chili.  In  the 
Old  World  they  are  found  in  localities  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean,  and  from  Siberia  to  India.  The  Assyrians,  the 
Persians,  the  Babylonians  and  the  Greeks  made  them.  The  Celts 
and  the  Saxons,  the  Scythians,  Mongolians  and  Hungarians,  all 
these  peoples  made  mounds  over  their  dead.  The  earliest,  or  at 
least  one  of  the  earliest  of  recorded  mounds  was  that  erected  by 
Semiramis  over  the  remains  of  Ninus,  3810  years  ago.  Semiramis 
buried  Ninus  within  the  precincts  of  the  palace,  and  erected  over 
him  a  hugh  mound. 

Diodorus  Siculus  says  of  Ninus :  "  He  was  interred  at  Ninive 
in  a  sepulchre  that  was  made  for  him  of  a  marvellous  bigness, 
being  in  height,  according  to  Etesias,  nine  hundred  and  thirty-seven 
and  a  half  fathoms,  and  about  half  a  league  about ;  which  hugh 
structure  [in  regard  to  the  city]  seated  in  a  plain  country  by  the 
Euphrates,  is  seen  afar  off,  as  it  were  a  castle  ;  and  it  is  said  that 
it  is  yet  in  being,  although  the  Medes  did  long  since  destroy  the 
city  of  Ninive,  when  they  ruled  over  the  Assyrians." 

Of  Semyramis  Diodorus  says :  "  Semyramis  went  into  Persia 
and  other  regions  of  Asia  under  her  rule  and  dominion,  and  every- 
where caused  mountains  and  rocks  to  be  cut  in  sunder  to  make 


CHAP.  I.]  OF    AMERICA.  7 

the  ways  easy  for  travellers,  and  in  the  plain  and  flat  countries 
she  cast  up  great  mounds  of  earth  whereon  she  built  either 
sepulchres  for  her  commanders,  or  some  cities  and  towns.  It 
was  her  manner  also  to  raise  up  high  banks  in  her  camp,  where 
she  pitched  her  tent,  that  from  thence  she  might  take  a  view  of  her 
army.  Of  all  these  are  many  marks  and  ruins  in  Asia  remaining 
to  this  day,  which  are  still  said  to  be  the  work  of  this  queen." 

The  most  recent  monument  of  this  kind,  raised  in  memory  of 
distinguished  men,  is  that  erected  by  the  people  of  Poland  in 
memory  of  Kosiusco,  the  Polish  patriot  and  hero,  the  friend  of 
Washington.  This  mound  was  made  in  the  year  1819,  by  the  volun- 
tary labor  of  the  Polish  people.  It  has  a  base  300  feet  in  diameter, 
and  an  elevation  of  175  feet.  Within  this  long  period  of  time,  from 
Ninus  to  Kosiusco,  the  Assyrians,  the  Babylonians,  the  Egyptians 
and  the  Persians  have  passed  away ;  the  empires  of  the  Macedo- 
nians, the  Romans,  the  Mongolians  and  the  Arabs  have  risen  and 
perished ;  while  multitudes  of  kingdoms,  nations  and  tribes  have 
passed  into  oblivion,  so  to  no  one  nation  can  the  erection  of  these 
mounds  be  attributed  as  the  sole  authors  of  them,  or  referred  as 
the  peculiarity  of  that  particular  nation.  There  was  no  nation  of 
mound-builders  in  the  Old  World. 

These  monuments  of  the  Old  World,  the  remains  of  extinct  peo- 
ples, are  known  to  have  been  increasing  in  number  for  nearly  four 
thousand  years.  When,  therefore,  we  consider  the  durability  of 
such  monuments,  and  the  multitude  of  nations  that  erected  them 
in  this  long  succession  of  ages,  it  is  not  surprising  that  they  should 
be  found  in  almost  every  country  of  Europe  and  Asia.  They  are 
found  in  Ireland,  Great  Britain,  Scandinavia,  Germany,  France, 
Poland,  Tartary,  Siberia,  China,  India,  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,  and 
in  the  countries  along  the  northern  and  southern  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean. 

Some  of  these  mounds  are  the  tombs  of  heroes,  kings  and  chiefs, 
and  some  were  erected  for  religious  purposes.  Some  have  been 
erected  by  the  command  of  kings ;  some  by  the  voluntary  act  of  a 
nation.  In  some  countries  they  are  known  to  the  people  by  the 
name  of  him  who  is  interred  beneath  them.  The  history  of  some 
of  remote  antiquity  is  known,  while  the  origin  of  others  is  lost  in 
the  remoteness  of  time.  They  are  known  by  the  names  tumuli, 
barrow,  mohill,  tepe,  and,  when  made  of  stones,  cairns.  In  form 
they  are  conical,  oblong,  bowl-shaped,  truncated  cones,  and  quad- 
rilateral. The  oldest  are  long-shaped  and  in  the  form  of  a  gigantic 
grave,  often  depressed  in  the  centre  and  elevated  towards  one  end. 
The  bowl-shaped  tumuli  seem  to  have  succeeded  this  early  form. 


8  THE    INDIAN   AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  II. 

The  sepulchral  mounds  of  a  later  date  are  broad  and  low,  sur- 
rounded sometimes  with  an  earthen  vallum,  and  sometimes,  par- 
ticularly in  Scotland  and  Scandinavia,  by  a  circle  of  standing 
stones.*  There  is  also  a  peculiar  monument  in  Scotland  which 
has  the  form  of  a  great  serpent,  and  there  are  similar  ones  in  India. 


CHAPTER   II. 

The  Burial  of  Patroclus— The  Burial  of  Hector— The  Tumuli  of  Platea— The 
Tumuli  of  Marathon — Modern  Accounts  of  those  of  Marathon — The  Burial 
Place  of  Lydian  Kings — The  Tumulus  of  Alyattes,  the  Father  of  Croesus — 
Herodotus' s  Account  of  it — Dr.  Chandler's  Account  of  it — Ancient  Custom 
of  the  Greeks  in  Regard  to  Tumuli. 

HOMER,  who  lived  in  the  tenth  or  the  ninth  century,  before  the 
Christian  era,  describes  the  burial  of  Patroclus  and  Hector,  who 
perished  twelve  centuries  (1270)  before  the  Christian  era. 

In  describing  the  burial  of  Patroclus  he  says  :  "  Men  were  sent 
to  the  foot  of  Mount  Ida,  with  axes  keen,  to  hew  the  lofty  oaks. 
The  wood  they  clove,  and  bound  it  to  the  mules ;  these  took  their 
way,  hurrying  to  the  plain.  The  axemen  too  were  laden  all  with 
logs,  which  on  the  beach  they  laid  in  order,  where  a  lofty  mound 
in  memory  of  Patroclus  and  himself  Achilles  had  designed.  When 
all  the  store  of  wood  was  duly  laid  the  Myrmidons  put  on  their 
armor  and  harnessed  each  his  horses  to  his  car,  and  on  the  cars 
warriors  and  charioteers  their  places  took.  First  came  the  horse, 
and  then  a  cloud  of  foot  unnumbered.  In  the  midst  Patroclus 
came,  borne  by  his  comrades.  All  the  corpse  with  hair  they  cov- 
ered o'er,  which  from  their  heads  they  shore.  Behind,  Achilles 
held  his  head,  and  mourned  the  noble  friend  whom  to  the  tomb 
he  bore.  Then  on  the  spot  by  Peleus's  son  assigned  they  laid 
him  down,  and  piled  the  wood  on  high." 

The  crowd  was  then  dispersed,  only  the  chiefs  remaining.  "  The 
appointed  band  remained  and  piled  the  wood.  A  hundred  feet 
each  way  they  built  the  pyre,  and  on  the  summit,  sorrowing,  laid 
the  dead.  Then  sheep  and  oxen  they  dressed  around  the  funeral 
pyre.  Of  all  the  beasts  Achilles  took  the  fat  and  covered  o'er  the 
corpse  from  head  to  foot,  and  heaped  the  slaughtered  carcasses 
around.  Then  jars  of  honey  placed,  and  fragrant  oils,  resting  upon 
the  couch.  Next  four  powerful  horses  were  thrown  upon  the  pyre. 

*  In  Asia  the  oldest  have  a  circle  of  stones. 


CHAP.  II.]  OF    AMERICA.  9 

Then  of  nine  dogs,  that  at  their  master's  board  had  fed,  he  slaugh- 
tered two  upon  his  pyre.  Last,  with  the  sword,  by  evil  counsel 
swayed,  twelve  noble  youths  he  slew,  the  sons  of  Troy.  The  fires 
devouring  might  be  then  applied.  All  night  the  pyre  burned,  and 
all  night  Achilles  from  a  golden  bowl,  the  wine  out-pouring,  moist- 
ened all  the  earth." 

In  the  morning  Achilles  gives  the  following  order :  "  Ye  chiefs 
of  Greece.  Far  as  the  flames  extend  quench  we  first,  with  ruddy 
wine,  the  embers  of  the  pyre.  And  of  Patroclus  next :  With 
care  distinguishing,  collect  the  bones.  Nor  are  they  hard  to  know, 
for  in  the  midst  he  lay,  while  round  the  edges  of  the  pyre  horses 
and  men  co-mixed,  the  rest  were  burnt.  Let  these,  between  a 
double  layer  of  fat  enclosed,  and  in  a  golden  urn,  remain  till  I 
myself  shall  in  the  tomb  be  laid.  And  o'er  them  build  a  mound, 
not  over-large,  but  of  proportions  meet.  In  days  to  come,  ye  Greeks, 
who  after  me  shall  here  remain,  complete  the  work,  and  build  it 
broad  and  high.  " 

Having  collected  the  bones  of  Patroclus,  and  in  a  golden  urn 
encased,  "  then  in  the  tent  they  laid  them,  overspread  with  veil  of 
linen  fair.  Then  meteing  out  the  allotted  space,  the  deep  founda- 
tions laid  around  the  pyre  'and  o'er  them  heaped  the  earth." 

Then  followed  games  with  prizes.  "  The  games  were  ended  and 
the  multitude  amid  the  ships  their  several  ways  dispersed." 

The  burial  of  Hector  is  thus  described  by  Homer :  "  First  on 
the  burning  mass,  as  far  as  spread  the  rage  of  fire,  they  poured  the 
ruddy  wine,  and  quenched  the  flames.  His  brethren  then  and 
friends  collected  from  the  pyre  the  whitened  bones.  These  in  a 
golden  casket  they  enclosed,  and  o'er  it  spread  soft  shawls  of  pur- 
ple dye.  Then  in  a  grave  they  laid  it,  and  in  haste  with  stone  in 
ponderous  masses  covered  o'er,  and  raised  a  mound.  The  mound 
erected,  back  they  turned,  and  all  assembled,  duly  shared  the 
solemn  feast  in  Priam's  palace.  Such  were  the  rites  to  glorious 
Hector  paid."* 

Herodotus  says :  "After  the  battle  of  Platea  the  Greeks  pro- 
ceeded to  inter  their  dead,  each  nation  by  themselves.  The  Lace- 
demonians sank  three  trenches — in  the  one  they  deposited  the 
bodies  of  their  priests,  in  the  second  were  interred  the  other  Spar- 
tans, and  in  the  third  the  Helots.  The  Tegeatse  were  buried  by 
themselves,  but  with  no  distinction ;  the  Athenians  in  like  man- 
ner, and  also  the  Magarians  and  Philiasians.  Mounds  of  earth 
were  raised  over  the  bodies  of  all  these  peoples. " 

*  Homer's  Iliad,  by  Edward,  Earl  of  Derby. 


10  THE    INDIAN   AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  II. 

Pausanias  says:  "Marathon  is  at  equal  distance  from  Athens 
and  Caristhea,  a  town  of  Euboea.  It  was  at  Marathon  that  the 
Persians  landed,  and  where,  after  a  great  battle,  they  were  defeated. 
They  also  lost  many  vessels  on  leaving  it.  There  is  seen  the  sep- 
ulchre of  the  brave  Athenians  who  perished  in  the  battle ;  upon 
their  tomb  they  have  erected  columns  where  are  engraven  the 
names  of  the  tribes  and  the  exploits  of  the  illustrious  dead.  The 
Plateans,  a  people  of  Beotia,  have  also  there  their  monument,  and 
the  slaves  theirs ;  for  on  this  occasion  the  slaves  were  enlisted  for  the 
first  time.  Miltiades,  the  son  of  Cimon,  has  his  sepulchre  apart. 
This  great  man  having,  after  the  battle  of  Marathon,  failed  at  the 
siege  of  Paros,  was  exiled  by  the  people  of  Athens,  and  died  a 
short  time  afterwards."  From  this  account,  it  appears,  there  were 
three  mounds;  yet  Stephens,  the  celebrated  American  traveller, 
who  visited  the  plains  of  Marathon  in  1835,  mentions  but  a  single 
mound.  He  merely  says :  "I  hurried  to  the  battle-field.  Towards 
the  centre  was  a  large  mound  of  earth  erected  over  the  Athenians 
who  fell  in  the  battle." 

Aubrey  DeVere,  who  published,  in  1850,  "  Picturesque  Sketches 
in  Greece  and  Turkey,"  says  in  that  book,  when  mentioning  his  visit 
to  Marathon  :  "  The  field  is  about  six  miles  long  and  two  broad,  and 
is  as  flat  as  the  sea.  On  two  sides  it  is  hemmed  in  by  the  moun- 
tains of  Attica,  and  on  one  by  the  low  ranges  of  Euboaa.  Within 
about  half  a  mile  of  the  shore  stands  the  tumulus  raised  by  Aris- 
tides  over  the  Athenians  who  fell  in  the  action."  DeVere  mentions 
but  a  single  mound. 

Henry  M.  Baird,  in  his  "  Modern  Greece,"  published  in  1856,  says : 
"  We  reached  the  mound  raised  over  the  slain  of  the  battle  of 

Marathon The  hillock  or  funeral  mound  under  which  the 

one  hundred  and  ninety-two  Athenians,  who  perished  in  battle, 
are  buried,  is  perhaps  thirty  feet  high.  If  its  shape  was  ever  an- 
gular, time  has  worn  it  down  to  a  round  form,  except  where  the 
sacrilegious  travellers  of  this  country,  in  searching  for  brass  and 
flint  arrow-heads,  have  scraped  away  some  earth  from  its  sides. 
Standing  upon  the  top  of  this  monument  of  ancient  glory  I  could 
easily  distinguish  the  positions  most  probably  occupied  by  the 

belligerent  parties  twenty-three  centuries  ago Having  now 

seen  all  that  is  most  interesting  at  Marathon  we  turned  our  faces 
westward.  Instead  of  retracing  our  steps  to  Vrana,  we  directed 

them  to  the  present  village  of  Marathon We  reached  it  after 

passing  on  our  left  the  marble  platform  supposed  to  have  been 
that  of  a  monument  erected  in  honor  of  Miltiades." 

Herodotus,  speaking  of  Lydia,  says :  "  If  we  except  the  gold- 


CHAP.  II.]  OF    AMERICA.  11 

dust  which  descends  from  Mount  Tmolus,*  Lydia  can  exhibit 
no  curiosity  which  may  vie  with  those  of  other  countries.  It 
boasts,  however,  of  one  monument  of  art,  second  to  none  but  those 
of  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians.  It  is  the  sepulchre  of  Alyattes, 
father  of  Croesus.  The  ground-work  is  composed  of  immense 
stones ;  the  rest  of  the  structure  is  a  huge  mound  of  earth.  The 
circumference  of  the  tomb  is  six  furlongs  and  two  plethra,  the 
breadth  thirteen  plethra.  It  is  terminated  by  a  large  piece  of 
water,  which  is  called  the  Gygean  lake.  The  edifice  was  raised 
by  men  of  mean  and  mercenary  occupations,  assisted  by  young 
women,  who  prostituted  themselves  for  hire.  On  the  summit  of 
this  mound  there  remained  within  my  remembrance  five  termini, 
upon  which  were  inscriptions  to  ascertain  the  performance  of  each, 
and  to  intimate  that  the  women  accomplished  the  greater  part  of 
the  work." 

Dr.  R.  Chandler,  D.D.,  in  his  "  Travels  in  Asia  Minor,"  in  th'e 
year  1764,  speaking  of  his  visit  to  the  burying-place  of  the  Lydian 
kings,  says  :  "  Before  Sardes,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  plain,  are 
many  barrows  on  an  eminence,  some  of  which  are  seed  afar  off. 
We  were  told  that  behind  them  was  a  lake,  and  agreed  to  visit  it. 
We  left  Sardes  in  the  afternoon,  and  repassed  the  Pactolus  farther 
on.  In  an  hour  we  came  to  the  banks  of  the  Hermus.  We  forded 
with  water  up  to  our  girths,  and  then  rode  among  huts  of  the  Tur- 
comans, their  large  and  fierce  dogs  barking  vehemently,  and  wor- 
rying us.  The  plains  now  appeared  as  bounded  by  mountains. 
The  view  westward  was  terminated  by  a  single,  distinct,  lofty 
range,  the  east  end  of  Mount  Sipylus. 

"  We  approached  nearer  to  the  high  green  ridge  on  which  the 
barrows  are,  and  going  beyond  its  eastern  extremity,  pitched  our 
tent,  after  three  hours,  by  a  village  called  Bazocleu. 

"  We  were  on  horseback  again  at  seven  in  the  morning,  and  going 
northwestward  for  half  an  hour,  came  to  the  lake  behind  the  ridge 
extending  westward,  and  was  anciently  called  Gygea.  It  is  very 
large,  and  abounds  in  fish,  its  color  and  taste  like  common  pond- 
water,  with  beds  of  sedge  growing  in  it.  We  saw  a  few  swans 
with  cygnets,  and  many  aquatic  birds.  The  air  swarmed  with 
gnats.  The  Lydians  asserted  it  was  never  dry.  The  name  had 
been  changed  from  Gygea  to  Coloe.  By  it  was  a  temple  of  Diana, 
called  Coloene,  of  great  sanctity.  The  privilege  of  an  asylum  was 
conferred  on  it  by  Alexander.  If  the  lake  be  fictitious,  the  ridge 
may  be  regarded  as  an  immense  mound  raised  with  the  soil. 

*  It  probably  was  the  gold-dust  brought  down  from  Mount  Tmolus  by  the 
river  Pactolus  that  made  Croesus  so  rich. 


12  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  II. 

"  By  Gygea,  which  was  within  five  miles  of  Sardes,  is  the  burying- 
place  of  the  Lydian  kings.*  The  barrows  are  of  various  sizes. 
Four  or  five,  distinguished  for  their  superior  magnitude,  are  visible 
as  hills  at  a  great  distance.  The  lake,  it  is  likely,  furnished  the 
soil.  All  of  them  are  covered  with  green  turf,  and  as  many  as  I 
observed  in  passing  among  them  retain  their  conical  form  with- 
out any  sinking  of  the  top.  One  of  the  barrows  on  the  eminence, 
near  the  middle,  and  toward  Sardes,  is  remarkably  conspicuous. 
This  has  been  described  by  Herodotus  as  inferior  only  to  the 
works  of  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians.  It  was  the  monument 
of  Alyattes,  the  father  of  Croesus ;  a  vast  mound  of  earth  heaped 
on  a  basement  of  large  stones  by  three  classes  of  the  people ;  one 
of  which  was  composed  of  girls,  who  were  prostitutes.  Alyattes 
died  after  a  long  reign,  in  the  year  562  before  the  Christian  era. 
About  a  century  intervened,  but  the  historian  relates  that  to  his 
time  five  stones  (o/ooe,  termini  or  stelas)  on  which  letters  were  en- 
graven had  remained  on  the  top,  recording  what  each  class  had 
performed ;  and  from  the  monument  it  had  appeared  that  the 
greater  portion  was  done  by  the  girls.  Strabo  also  has  mentioned 
it  as  a  huge  mound  raised  on  a  lofty  basement  by  the  multitude  of 
the  city.  The  circumference  is  six  stadia  or  three-quarters  of  a 
mile,  the  height  two  plethra  or  two  hundred  feet,  and  the  width 
thirteen  plethra. 

"  It  was  customary  among  the  Greeks  to  place  on  barrows  either 
the  image  of  some  animal  or  stelas,  commonly  round  pillows  with 
inscriptions.  The  famous  barrow  of  the  Athenians  in  the  plain  of 
Marathon,  described  by  Pausanias,  is  an  instance  of  the  latter 
usage. 

"  The  barrow  of  Alyattes  is  much  taller  and  handsomer  than  any 
I  have  seen  in  England  or  elsewhere.  The  mould,  which  has  been 
washed  down,  conceals  the  stonework,  which,  it  seems,  was  an- 
ciently visible. f  The  apparent  altitude  is  diminished  and  the 
bottom  rendered  wider  and  less  distinct  than  before.  Its  measure- 
ments, which  we  were  not  prepared  to  take,  deserve  to  be  ascer- 
tained and  compared  with  those  given  by  Herodotus."! 

*  Dr.  Chandler,  D.D.,  Fellow  of  Magdalen  College  and  of  the  Society  of  Anti- 
quarians, gives  ancient  authority  for  what  he  states.  But  his  name  is  sufficient 
guarantee  for  the  truth  of  what  he  relates.  So  the  references  are  omitted  here. 

t  There  are,  or  were,  in  the  Crimea,  enormous  tumuli  covered  in  some  in- 
stances with  blocks  of  limestone,  three  feet  square.  This  monument  of  Alyattes 
may  have  been  stripped  of  similar  stones  to  erect  more  modern  buildings,  and 
thus  the  "mould  has  been  washed  down." 

t  "  Travels  in  Asia  Minor  and  Greece,"  by  E.  Chandler,  D.D.,  in  1764  to 
1766. 


CHAP.  III.]  OP   AMERICA.  13 


CHAPTER  III. 

Chevalier's  Visit  to  the  Plains  of  Troy — The  Tumulus  of  Eesyetes  Built  Before 
the  Trojan  War — The  Tumulus  of  Protesilaus — Alexander's  Visit  to  the 
Plains  of  Troy— Alexander  Erects  "Altars" — Tumuli  at  Segeum,  to 
Jupiter,  Minerva,  and  Hercules — The  Tumulus  of  Demaratus — Alexander 
Erects  Twelve  "Altars"  in  India — The  Scythian  Tumuli  in  the  Borys- 
thenes — Herodotus's  Account  of  Them  and  Dr.  Hall's  Account  of  Them 
— Edmund  Spencer's  Account  of  Museum  of  Kertch  and  of  the  Opening 
of  a  Tumulus  in  the  Crimea,  in  the  Year  1836 — Tumuli  in  the  Crimea  of 
Prodigious  Size  and  .in  Immense  Numbers. 

A  HUNDRED  years  ago,  1792,  Chevalier  visited  the  Plains  of  Troy. 
In  his  book  entitled  u  Description  of  the  Plains  of  Troy,"  he  says  : 
"  I  have  not  the  smallest  hesitation  in  believing  that  the  hillock  in 
the  vicinity  of  Udjek,  and  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  Udjek- 
Tepe,  is  a  sepulchre ;  and  every  circumstance  induces  me  to  be- 
lieve that  it  is  the  tomb  of  Eesyetes,  a  monument  of  the  most 
remote  antiquity,  as  it  existed  even  before  the  time  of  the  Trojan 
War.  Homer  alludes  to  it,  and  Strabo  places  it  five  stadia  distant 
from  Troy,  on  the  road  leading  from  there  to  Alexandrea  Troas." 
Besides  this  tomb,  Chevalier  mentions  the  tumuli  of  Ilus,  Patro- 
clus,  Antilochus,  and  Hector,  and  quotes  the  following :  "  When 
Alexander  (according  to  what  has  been  collected  from  various  an- 
cient authors  by  Freinshemius  in  his  supplement  to  Quintus 
Curtius)  arrived  at  Sestos,  he  commanded  Parmenio  to  proceed 
with  the  greatest  part  of  his  troops  to  Abydos,  on  the  opposite 
shore.  Himself  at  the  head  of  the  rest  marched  to  Eleus,  a  place 
sacred  to  Protesilaus,  whose  sepulchre  under  a  mound  of  earth 
had  been  constructed  there ;  for  Protesilaus  in  the  flower  of  his 
age  accompanied  his  countrymen  to  Asia,  and  was  the  first  victim 
of  the  Trojan  war.  On  this  occasion  Alexander  performed 
funeral  honors  to  his  manes,  praying  that  his  own  lot  might  be 
more  auspicious  when  he  should  reach  the  hostile  shore.  He  then 
sailed  with  fifty  vessels  for  Sigeum,  and  the  Grecian  haven,  so 
called  because  it  had  received  the  Grecian  ships  in  the  time  of  the 
Trojan  war.  When  the  fleet  arrived  at  the  haven,  altars  were 
erected  on  the  spot  where  he  had  disembarked  to  Jupiter  the  Pro- 
tector, to  Minerva,  and  Hercules.  He  also  commanded  altars  to 
be  erected  in  that  part  of  Europe  whence  he  had  sailed."  Such 
altars  were  often  erected  on  the  spur  of  the  moment,  when  they 
were  constructed  of  earth  or  stones  collected  on  the  spot,  and  it  is 


14  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  III. 

probable  that  on  this  occasion  the  altars  were  made  in  this  man- 
ner. "  He  next  proceeded  into  the  fields  where  the  seat  of  ancient 
Troy  was  pointed  out  to  him,  and  there,  as  he  was  accustomed  to 
admire  Achilles,  and  glory  in  his  descent  from  that  hero,  he 
stripped  himself  and  ran  with  his  friends  quite  naked  around  his 
tomb ;  he  even  anointed  it  and  adorned  it  with  a  crown.  Hep- 
hestion,  too,  crowned  the  tomb  of  Patroclus,  as  an  emblem  that 
the  friendship  which  subsisted  between  himself  and  Alexander 
was  as  ardent  as  that  which  Patroclus  had_  borne  to  Achilles.' ' 

The  expression  in  this  quotation,  that  Alexander  crowned  the 
tomb,  does  not  convey  the  correct  idea.  He  anointed  and 
crowned  the  column  erected  on  the  summit  of  the  mound  or  tomb, 
it  being  then  and  afterwards  the  custom  among  the  Greeks  to  erect 
engraven  columns  on  the  summits  of  such  mounds.  Arrian  men- 
tions the  fact  of  Alexander  having  anointed  the  column. 

Plutarch,  in  his  life  of  Alexander,  says  that  "  Demaratus,  the 
Corinthian,  though  far  advanced  in  years,  was  ambitious  of  going 
to  see  Alexander,"  who  had  then  conquered  Asia.  "  Accordingly 
he  took  the  voyage,  and  when  he  beheld  him  he  said  :  '  The  Greeks 
fell  short  of  a  great  pleasure  who  did  not  live  to  see  Alexander 
upon  the  throne  of  Darius.'  But  he  did  not  live  to  enjoy  the 
king's  friendship.  He  sickened  and  died  soon  after.  The  king, 
however,  performed  his  obsequies  in  a  most  magnificent  manner, 
and  the  army  threw  up  for  him  a  monument  of  earth  of  great 
extent  and  fourscore  cubits  high." 

Arrian  mentions  that  when  Alexander  prepared  to  leave  India 
he  ordered  twelve  altars  to  be  erected,  equal  in  height  to  so  many 
fortified  towers,  but  far  exceeding  them  in  bulk ;  on  these  he 
offered  sacrifices  to  the  gods  and  gave  them  thanks  for  making  him 
thus  far  victorious,  and  consecrated  them  as  eternal  monuments  of 
his  labors.  These  altars  were  probably  built  on  the  spur  of  the, 
moment,  and  were  huge  mounds  made  either  of  earth  or  of  stone 
as  they  far  exceeded  towers  in  bulk,  and  according  to  Diodorus 
were  fifty  cubits  high. 

The  Scythians,  who  six  hundred  years  before  Christ  occupied  a 
vast  territory  north  of  the  Euxine  Sea,  and  extending  from  the 
Borysthenes  or  Dnieper  to  the  Tonais  or  Don,  buried  their  kings 
near  the  Borysthenes  and  erected  huge  mounds  over  them.  In 
speaking  of  the  burial  of  the  Scythian  kings,  Herodotus  says : 
"  The  sepulchres  of  the  kings  are  in  the  district  of  the  Gherri.  As 
soon  as  a  king  dies  a  large  trench  of  quadrangular  form  is  sunk 
near  where  the  Borysthenes  begins  to  be  navigable.  When  this 
has  been  done  the  body  is  inclosed  in  wax,  after  it  has  been  thor- 


CHAP.  III.]  OF    AMERICA.  15 

oughly  cleansed  and  the  entrails  taken  out;  before  it  is  sewn  up 
they  fill  it  with  anise,  parsley-seed,  bruised  cypress,  and  various 
aromatics.  They  then  place  it  in  a  carriage  and  remove  it  to  an- 
other district,  where  similar  honors  are  paid  it  as  at  the  first  place. 
After  thus  transporting  the  body  through  the  different  provinces 
of  the  kingdom,  they  came  at  last  to  the  Gherri,  who  live  in  the 
remotest  parts  of  Scythia,  and  among  whom  the  sepulchres  are. 
Here  the  corpse  is  placed  upon  a  couch,  around  which,  at  differ- 
ent distances,  daggers  are  fixed  ;*  upon  the  whole  are  disposed 
pieces  of  wood  covered  with  branches  of  willow.  In  some  other 
part  of  this  trench  is  put  one  of  the  deceased's  concubines,  whom 
they  previously  strangle,  together  with  the  baker,  the  cook,  the 
groom,  his  most  confidential  servant,  his  horses,  the  choicest  of  his 
effects,  and  finally  some  golden  goblets  ;  to  conclude  all,  they  fill 
up  the  trench  with  earth,  and  seem  to  be  emulous  in  their  endeav- 
ors to  raise  as  high  a  mound  as  possible." 

DeHell,  who,  in  1838,  visited  the  estate  of  Vassal,  on  the  Dnieper, 
the  ancient  Borysthenes,  thus  speaks  of  the  country :  "  It  presents 
to  view  only  a  vast  desert  with  numerous  tumuli,  salt  lakes,  and 
a  few  sheepfolds.  These  tumuli,  from  ten  to  fifteen  yards  high, 
are  the  only  hills  in  the  country,  and  appear  to  be  the  burial-places 
of  its  old  masters,  the  Scythians.  Several  of  them  have  been 
opened,  and  nothing  found  in  them  but  some  bones,  copper  coins 
of  the  kings  of  the  Bosphorus,  and  coarse  earthern  utensils. 
Similar  tombs  in  the  Crimea  have  been  found  to  contain  objects 
of  more  value,  both  as  regards  material  and  workmanship.  This 
difference  is  easily  accounted  for ;  the  Milesian  colonies  that  oc- 
cupied part  of  the  Crimea  two  thousand  years  ago  spread  a  taste 
for  opulence  and  the  fine  arts  all  through  the  peninsula ;  their 
tombs  would  therefore  bear  token  of  the  degree  of  civilization  they 
had  reached.  They  had  a  regular  government,  princes,  and  all 
the  elements  and  accessories  of  a  kingdom;  whilst  the  poor 
Scythians,  divided  into  nomad  tribes,  led  a  rude  life  in  the  midst 
of  the  herds  of  cattle  that  constituted  their  sole  wealth." 

In  the  year  1836  Edmund  Spencer  visited  the  Crimea.  He 
says :  "  We  entered  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus.  We  were  now  in 
the  centre  of  countries  connected  with  some  of  the  most  brilliant 
periods  in  the  history  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  These  were 
the  countries  that  formed  the  emporium  of  the  commerce  of 
Athens,  which  enriched  her  citizens  and  established  her  as  a  great 

*  An  Indian  tribe  of  the  West  performed  this  same  ceremony  of  fixing — not 
daggers — but  arrows  around  the  tomb  or  grave  of  their  deceased  countrymen. 


16  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  III. 

maritime  power,  and  afterward  witnessed  some  of  the  greatest 
triumphs  of  mighty  Rome.  Indeed,  each  side  of  the  strait  abounds 
with  objects  to  interest  the  traveller,  in  the  numerous  ruins  of  its 
ancient  cities,  and  in  the  surprising  number  and  size  of  the 
sepulchral  tumuli  everywhere  visible."  He  thus  speaks  of  the 
Museum  of  Kertch  and  of  some  of  the  tumuli  in  its  vicinity : 
"  We  then  extended  our  promenade  to  the  Museum,  the  collection 
of  which  has  been  considerably  augmented  since  the  opening  of 
a  tumulus  in  1830,  called  by  the  Tartars  Allyn  Obo,  or  the  hill  of 
gold,  pretended  to  be  the  tomb  of  Mithridates.  The  immense 
quantity  of  bronze  gilt  vases,  gold  ornaments,  and  trinkets  then 
found,  fully  justifies  the  appellation ;  they  were  all  of  the  most 
exquisite  workmanship.  The  Museum  contains,  in  addition,  a 
very  choice  collection  of  statues,  vases,  and  medals,  the  whole 
found  in  the  environs,  and  unquestionably  of  Grecian  workman- 
ship. 

"  The  acquisition  of  these  treasures  generated  the  desire  to  open 
another  of  these  tumuli ;  and  the  authorities  of  Kertch  selected 
one  whose  dimensions  were  similar  to  those  of  Allyn  Obo,  that  is 
about  thirty  feet  high,  and  employed  a  number  of  men  for  several 
weeks  in  its  excavation.  After  much  labor  and  a  useless  search, 
they  at  length  came  to  an  enormous  slab.  The  work  of  raising 
the  ponderous  slab,  which  had  been  placed  over  the  tomb  in 
the  form  of  a  cross,  slowly  proceeded,  and  when,  after  much  labor, 
the  massive  stone  was  removed,  we  beheld  a  square  trough  of  cut 
stone,  with  a  wooden  box  in  the  centre  containing  a  bronze  urn, 
gilt,  of  the  most  graceful  form  and  elaborate  workmanship.  The 
whole  was  carried  to  Kertch,  a  few  leagues  distant,  but  when 
opened,  was  found  to  enclose  no  other  treasure  than  the  ashes  of 
him  who  had  been  there  interred.  These  remains,  perhaps  of  a 
prince  or  hero,  I  afterwards  saw  carried  out  by  a  servant  and 
thrown  upon  a  dunghill ! 

tl  The  tumuli  of  these  countries  are  exceedingly  interesting ;  the 
prodigious  size  and  immense  numbers  we  find,  both  here  and  in 
the  adjoining  island  of  Tamana,  incontestibly  prove  that  it  was  a 
country  once  occupied  by  a  great  and  powerful  people.  That  they 
were  opulent,  the  variety  of  gold  ornaments,  beautiful  vases,  ex- 
quisite statues,  and  sculptured  tombs  found  in  the  neighborhood 
sufficiently  shows.  With  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  existence  of 
these  mounds,  if  we  may  depend  upon  the  traditionary  accounts 
of  the  descendants  of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants,  some  of  whom 
are  still  to  be  found  in  the  mountainous  districts  of  the  Crimea, 
these  tumuli  were  voluntarily  erected  by  the  people  ;  as  when  any 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  17 

of  their  great  warriors  or  kings  expired,  his  ashes  were  placed  in 
the  tomb,  and  every  man  who  admired  his  virtues  carried  a  por- 
tion of  earth  and  threw  it  over  his  grave. 

';  Be  this  as  it  may,  they  certainly  have  not  been  formed  of  earth 
excavated  in  the  vicinity,  which  is  always  perfectly  level,  and 
some  geologists  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  earth  of  which  they 
are  composed  is  different  in  its  nature  from  that  on  which  it 
stands. 

"However,  the  idea  of  a  mountain  tomb  being  formed  as  a  trib- 
ute of  the  voluntary  admiration  of  an  entire  people  for  a  chief 
whose  loss  they  deplore,  is  beautiful  and  affecting.  The  tradition 
of  the  Tartars  is  not,  however,  without  some  foundation  in  truth, 
for  the  cairns  of  the  Scots  were  erected  in  a  similar  manner,  and 
in  the  north  of  Scotland  an  expression  of  friendship  and  affection 
still  remains  among  the  people,  to  this  effect :  '  I  will  cast  a  stone 
upon  thy  cairn.' " 


CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Miletian  and  Heraklian  Settlements  in  the  Crimea — The  Tumuli  near  the 
Theodocian  Gate  at  Kertch — Their  Contents — A  Particular  Description  of 
Two  Great  Tumuli  near  Kertch,  and  of  their  Contents. 

The  Miletians  (lonians)  and  Heraklians  (Dorians),  in  the 
seventh  century  before  Christ,  planted  colonies  in  the  Crimea. 
The  origin  of  the  city  of  Miletus  in  Caria,  is  within  the  period  of 
the  first  Greek  emigration  from  home.  The  place  was  first  settled 
by  natives  of  the  country,  to  whom  came  Sarpedon  of  Miletus,  in 
Crete,  and  after  him  Neleus,  from  Attica.  Miletus  was  already 
large  and  flourishing  when  the  cities  of  the  parent  country  were 
just  beginning  to  emerge  from  obscurity.  It  was  already  a  power- 
ful city  when  the  Lydian  monarchs  rose  into  consequence.  Almost 
all  the  Greek  cities  along  the  coast  of  the  Euxine  Sea  were  of 
Miletian  origin.  Pliny  makes  them  to  have  been  eighty  in  num- 
ber, and  Seneca  seventy-five. 

Heraclea  is  a  name  given  to  more  than  forty  towns  in  Europe, 
Asia,  Africa,  and  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean.  They  are  sup- 
posed to  have  derived  this  appellation  from  the  Greek  name  of 
Hercules,  and  to  have  either  been  built  in  honor  of  him  or  placed 
under  his  protection.  The  city  of  this  name  that  settled  colonies 
in  the  Crimea  is  Heraclea  Pontica,  on  the  coast  of  Bithynia,  which 
was  founded  by  a  colony  of  Megarians,  strengthened  by  some 

2 


18  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

Tanagreans  from  Boeotia.  The  number  of  the  former,  however,  so 
predominated,  that  the  city  was  in  general  considered  as  Doric.  It 
was  famed  for  its  naval  power  and  its  consequence  among  the 
Asiatic  states. 

In  travelling  from  Theodosia  to  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus,  the 
traveller  on  reaching  Suftanofka,  the  third  station,  seventy- 
seven  versts  from  Theodosia,  for  the  first  time  sees  the  horizon 
crowned  by  the  tumuli  and  coral-rag  peaks  which  characterize 
the  environs  of  Kertch.  After  the  long  journey  over  an  uninter- 
rupted steppe  slight  undulations  appear  above  the  horizon,  in  ap- 
proaching the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus,  and  shortly  after  this  appear- 
ance the  traveller  finds  himself  in  a  principal  necropolis  of  the 
ancient  Miletian  city.  Immense  cones  of  earth  rise  on  each  side 
of  the  road,  and  ridges  of  coral-rag  lying  among  these  sepulchral 
monuments  give  a  grand  aspect  to  this  singular  field  of  death. 
On  arriving  at  the  end  of  the  plateau,  the  view  extends  over  the 
whole  Bosphorus.  On  an  evening  in  summer  the  last  rays  of  the 
setting  sun  tint  the  cliffs  on  the  Asiatic  side.  The  outlines  of  the 
tumuli  of  Phanagoria  become  distinctly  traced  on  the  blue  sky, 
and  the  shadow  of  Cape  Akbouroun  stretches  over  the  water  [1].* 

Descending  the  plateau,  the  traveller  enters  the  town  of  Kertch. 
The  straits  on  which  it  stands,  leading  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the 
Sea  of  Azof,  and  separating  Europe  from  Asia,  are  about  eight 
miles  wide.  It  is  now  the  chief  town  of  a  little  government  com- 
prising Yenicaleh,  a  few  miles  distant,  and  about  thirteen  thou- 
sand acres  of  land,  which  form  the  eastern  point  of  the  peninsula. 
Kertch,  like  all  Greek  colonies,  is  charmingly  situated  [2].  A  hill, 
called  the  arm-chair  of  Mithridates,  rises  at  a  short  distance 
from  the  shore  and  gently  slopes  down  to  the  sea.  Around  this 
hill  was  originally  built  the  old  Greek  town,  and  on  its  sides  were 
once  clustered  a  variety  of  Greek  temples,  crowned  on  the  top  by 
the  acropolis,  which  in  Greek  cities  was  nothing  more  than  the 
walls  surrounding  the  sacred  spot  in  which  was  placed  the  tutelary 
deity,  upon  the  safe  custody  of  which  the  security  of  the  town  was 
supposed  to  depend.f 

The  interior  of  the  acropolis,  which  was  two  hundred  yards 
square,  allowed  plenty  of  room  for  the  erection  of  two  sanctuaries, 
one  to  Cybele  and  the  other  to  Ceres,  and  still  left  space  for  the 
lodgings  of  the  priests  and  the  garrison  and  for  the  palace  of  Mithri- 
dates the  Great,  who  came  here  to  die.  The  acropolis  of  Athens 

*  The  numbers  in  brackets  refer  to  plates. 

t  It  is  singular  how  certain  superstitious  ideas  are  transmitted  from  one  gen- 
eration to  another  through  ages,  and  from  one  religion  to  another. 


fe- 


I 

^ 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  19 

had  not  more  available  room  than  that  of  Panticapseum.  The 
plateau  of  the  hill  enclosed  in  the  walls  of  the  town  was  also  orna- 
mented with  palaces,  and  perhaps  temples.  The  inscriptions  and 
medals  of  Panticapseum  show  that  there  was  the  worship  of  seve- 
ral other  divinities  besides  Cybele  and  Ceres.* 

The  ancient  name  of  Kertch  was  Panticapaeum,  and  it  was  one 
of  the  many  Miletian  colonies  founded  on  the  Black  Sea  in  the 
seventh  century  before  Christ.  In  its  palmiest  days  the  territory 
extended  as  far  north  as  the  Tanais.  while  to  the  west  it  was 
bounded  on  the  inland  side  by  the  mountains  of  Theodocia.  This 
fertile  and  narrow  region  was  the  granary  of  Greece,  especially  of 
Athens.  Although  there  are  no  fine  buildings,  or  even  fragments, 
left  standing,  heaps  of  brick  and  pottery  and  the  foundations  of 
buildings  encumber  the  soil  for  a  considerable  distance  round  the 
Hill  of  Mithridates,  and  show  how  great  was  the  extent  of  the 
ancient  city. 

The  acropolis  occupied  the  summit  of  the  Hill  of  Mithridates,  in 
shape  an  irregular  polygon,  and  the  ditches  and  some  parts  of  the 
walls,  of  coarse  limestone  of  Kertch,  may  still  be  traced.  It  is  proba- 
ble that  in  very  early  times  the  bay  advanced  much  farther  into 
the  land,  and  that  the  Hill  of  Panticapseum  was  bounded  on  three 
sides  by  the  sea.  In  the  midst  of  the  immense  ruins  which  cover 
the  surrounding  country  may  be  traced  the  principal  streets,  which 
ended  at  the  gates  of  the  town.  The  base  of  the  peak  is  hidden 
under  a  mass  of  ruins,  and  the  whole  rock  has  been  carefully  hewn. 

There  are  no  signs  of  aqueducts  in  the  acropolis,  but  the  lower 
town  was  probably  supplied  with  water  from  two  springs  at  the 
bottom  of  the  valley,  which  now  furnish  the  two  principal  foun- 
tains of  Kertch.  One  is  within  the  old  fortifications,  and  has 
been  repaired  by  the  Turks  with  the  fragments  of  ancient  marbles, 
on  one  of  which  is  an  inscription  showing  it  to  have  belonged  to 
a  monument  of  Sauromates  III,  raised  to  his  father,  Mithridates 
Eupator  (162  A.D.)t 

The  principal  gate  of  the  town  was  turned  towards  the  interior 
of  the  peninsula  in  the  centre  of  the  western  wall.  It  led  to 
Nympha3um  and  Theodosia,  and  the  place  is  easily  recognized  by 
the  interruption  of  the  deep  ditch  which  ran  along  it.  About  240 
yards  from  the  gate  the  road  which  led  to  Theodosia  reached  an 

*  Excavations  made  at  the  foot  of  the  rock  discovered  a  fine  torso,  in  white 
marble,  of  a  colossal  statue  of  Cybele — the  same  as  Astarte  or  the  Eastern 
Venus. 

f  Mithridates  Eupator,  Mithridates  the  Great,  born  131  or  132  B.C.,  died  63 
B.C.,  reigned  fifty-seven  years. 


20  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

allee  of  tumuli,  ranged  several  rows  deep  on  each  side  in  an  irreg- 
ular mariner,  and  continued  two-thirds  of  a  mile.  This  long  series 
of  tombs  seems  to  date  in  a  great  measure  from  the  foundation  of 
the  town  of  the  Miletians.  At  a  later  period  the  dwelling  of  the 
dead  became  more  extended,  and  occupied  the  range  of  hills  in 
continuation  of  Mount  Mithridates  for  six  or  seven  miles  in  length, 
and  here  are  found  the  tombs  of  the  kings.  Tumuli  are  also  found 
on  the  other  side  of  the  low  plain  to  the  north,  where  they  form 
three  grand  groups,  the  best  known  of  which  is  near  the  modern 
quarantine.  The  gate  to  the  north  of  the  Theodosia  gate  led  to 
the  Greek  city  of  Dia,  near  Kamish-batoun,  and  the  road  crossed 
the  hill  through  a  gentle  dip.  Along  it  were  the  tombs  of  the  poor 
people,  who  buried  their  urns  and  cinders  around  the  coral-rag 
peak,  two  hundred  and  forty-five  feet  above  the  level  of  the  bay. 

Afterwards,  as  the  bay  became  filled  up,  the  population  descended 
and  left  the  site  of  the  old  town,  until,  in  the  fourth  century,  soon 
after  Kertch  became  converted  to  Christianity,  its  kings  disap- 
peared, and  barbarous  hordes  destroyed  all  the  cities  of  the  Bos- 
phorus.  The  Panticapaeum  of  the  Eastern  empire  was  a  decayed 
and  unimportant  town. 

As  soon  as  there  was  space  enough  on  the  sea-shore  the  inhabit- 
ants fortified  themselves  there;  and  theMiletian  acropolis,  with  its 
temples  and  palaces,  has  ever  since  served  as  a  cemetery.  By  ex- 
cavations to  the  depth  of  eight  or  ten  feet  were  found  broken 
Etruscan  pottery,  fragments  of  marble,  and  building- stones  with 
inscriptions.  In  the  midst  of  this  new  soil  were  a  number  of 
tombs  irregularly  placed,  one  on  the  other,  containing  stone  coffins, 
made  of  thin  layers  of  Kertch  limestone,  filled  simply  with  bones, 
which  proved  them  to  be  Christians. 

The  Greeks  never  allowed  the  dead  to  be  placed  near  the  Temple 
of  the  Gods,  as  their  contact  was  considered  pollution. 

"  The  enormous  quantity  of  tumuli  around  Kertch  (Pantica- 
pa3um)  forms  one  of  the  distinguishing  features  of  the  place.  Many 
of  them  have  been  opened,  and  unfortunately  without  sufficient 
care.  The  tumuli  on  the  shores  of  the  Bosphorus  are  essentially 
Miletian.  This  is  also  remarkable  on  the  Asiatic  side,  where  the 
towns  of  Sindes  have  no  monuments  of  this  kind,  while  Phana- 
goria,  Kepos,  Kimmericurn,  which  are  known  Miletian  colonies, 
are  surrounded  by  them.  The  same  is  the  case  on  the  European 
shore,  where  Panticapseum,  Myrmekium,  Porthmium,  Nymphseum, 
Miletian  towns,  are  distinguished  from  a  distance  by  the  multitude 
of  their  tumuli,  while  the  other  Kimmericum,  now  Opouk,  and 
Kherson,  colonies  of  Heraclea,  and  consequently  Dorian,  have 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  21 

none.  The  same  is  the  case  with  the  towns  of  the  Tauri,  except 
the  residence  of  Skilouros,  near  Simpheropol,  which  has  a  few 
tumuli  near  its  walls.  It  would  be  curious  to  inquire  what  is  the 
reason  of  the  tumulus  being  peculiar  to  the  Ionic  race." 

The  group  of  tumuli  near  the  Theodosia  gate  are  the  most 
ancient,  as  is  proven  by  the  nature  of  the  objects  found  in  them, 
and  by  their  worn  appearance.*  The  tumuli  near  the  quarantine 
are  clearly  less  ancient  than  those  on  the  road  to  Theodosia.  They 
are  less  worn  by  time,  of  more  colossal  dimensions,  and  their  in- 
terior construction  and  the  objects  contained  in  them  show  a  more 
advanced  state  of  civilization.  These  tumuli  were  also  crossed  by 
a  public  road,  which  branched  off  on  the  right  to  Myrmekium  and 
on  the  left  to  Porthmium.  The  greater  number  contain  vaults 
built  of  masonry,  instead  of  excavations  in  the  limestone,  and 
their  floor  is  on  the  same  level  as  the  ground  outside.  The  arch 
of  the  ceiling  is  formed  by  each  row  of  stones  projecting  more 
than  the  one  below,  until  they  almost  touch  at  the  top,  and  there 
are  several  tombs  in  the  same  tumulus.  On  cutting  through  one, 
on  the  new  road  to  Yenicaleh,f  three  tombs  were  found.  The 
two  first  were  those  of  men,  as  was  proven  by  two  swords  and 
a  lance  which  were  found  in  them,  and  in  the  third  was  the  skele- 
ton of  a  woman  crowned  with  leaves  of  golden  laurel. 

There  were  also  the  following  golden  ornaments :  Ear-rings  two 
inches  long.  A  large  bulla,  like  the  fastening  of  a  bell,  with  a  head 
of  Mercury  upon  it.  Many  plates  of  gold  which  had  fallen  from 
the  dress,  now  disappeared,  on  which  were  embossed  vine-leaves 
and  bunches  of  grapes.  There  were  two  rings,  one  very  massive, 
with  a  stone  having  a  head  upon  it,  and  the  other  with  a  stone  cut 
into  the  shape  of  a  lion  couchant,  and  there  was  another  represent- 
ing two  owls.  By  the  side  of  the  body  was  a  gold  coin  of  Philip 
of  Macedon. 

*  Blarenberg  excavated  four  of  them  in  1824,  which  had  not  been  previously 
opened.  The  head  was  generally  surrounded  by  leaves  of  beaten  gold,  of  which 
it  was  the  custom  to  make  a  crown.  Among  the  articles  found  in  one  tomb  are  : 
A  bust  of  Isis  in  terra-cotta,  a  fragment  of  Serapis  in  plaster,  a  fragment  of  a 
large  necklace  in  carbonate  of  silver,  finished  by  two  heads  of  lions  ;  two  medals 
in  bronze  of  KingEumeles  (died  B.C.  304),  having  on  one  side  a  head  of  Apollo 
and  on  the  reverse  a  Priapus  before  a  branch  of  myrtle ;  a  pair  of  golden  brace- 
lets, beautifully  worked ;  two  golden  ear-rings,  with  small  cupids,  ornamented 
with  precious  stones ;  two  golden  rings,  with  convex  green  stones ;  a  golden 
ring,  with  an  engraved  stone  of  Minerva,  very  fine;  a  golden  pin,  with  a  stone 
on  which  is  a  butterfly;  a  silver  pin,  with  an  engraved  stone,  with  a  head  ;  four 
chalcedony  ear-drops,  and  some  leaves  in  beaten  gold. 

f  Yenicaleh  is  at  the  point  of  the  peninsula,  about  seven  miles  northeast  of 
Kertch. 


22  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

At  the  same  time  another  discovery  was  made  by  chance. 
By  the  side  of  the  third  tomb  a  fourth  was  found,  in  which  were 
two  large  Etruscan  vases,  and  one  amphora  about  the  head  of  the 
dead,  who  was  crowned  with  leaves  of  golden  laurel ;  with  it  were 
two  necklaces,  a  pair  of  precious  ear-rings,  and  a  coin,  all  of  gold. 
It  is  interesting  to  find  on  the  shores  of  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus 
the  same  vases  which  in  Italy  are  called  Etruscan,  from  the  place 
in  which  they  were  first  found.  They  were  soon  known,  however, 
not  to  be  peculiar  to  Etruria ;  and  Magna  Grsecia  was  discovered 
to  be  a  still  more  prolific  mine  of  them.  Further  researches  es- 
tablished the  fact  that  wherever  Greece  had  carried  her  civiliza- 
tion and  her  colonies  these  vases  were  found,  and  that  there  was 
not  a  spot  within  these  limits,  even  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the 
Kuban  and  the  Sea  of  Azof,  which  did  not  possess  this  kind  of 
pottery,  manufactured  on  the  spot. 

The  funeral  vases,  wide  below,  with  narrow  necks,  nine  to  fifteen 
inches  high,  are  found  in  the  tombs,  always  with  two  handles,  and 
two  compositions  painted  on  them,  one  on  each  side,  differing  both 
in  execution  and  the  style  of  the  subject.  On  comparing  them  with 
those  found  in  Italy,  they  will  be  seen  to  be  precisely  similar, 
even  to  the  singular  difference  in  the  two  compositions  which  or- 
nament them.  The  one  is  always  some  scene  in  private  or  public 
life,  and  the  design  is  elegant  and  the  execution  very  careful. 
The  other  is  a  coarse  sketch  hastily  done  in  a  rough  way,  and  an 
eternal  repetition  of  the  same  personages,  with  some  variation  in 
the  pose,  the  number  of  figures,  and  the  emblems  which  accom- 
pany them.*  The  subjects  chosen  go  to  prove  that  they  were 
manufactured  at  Panticapseum,  for  the  griffin,  which  was  the  em- 
blem of  that  city,  constantly  appears,  and  various  details  of  the 
Scythian  costume. 

Three  classes  of  tombs  are  still  to  be  mentioned — those  of  the 
poor,  the  catacombs,  and  the  tombs  of  the  kings.  On  going  out  of 
the  gate  leading  to  Dia,  along  the  mountain  of  Mithridates,  there 
is  an  eminence  which  a  gentleman  began  to  excavate.  His  labors, 
however,  seemed  to  end  in  the  solid  rock  below  a  mass  of  amphora? 
which  contained  the  cinders  of  the  poor.  At  last  he  remarked  a 
sepulchral  slab,  and  lifting  it  up,  found  the  entrance  to  a  funeral 
cave.  This  was  built  with  an  Egyptian  roof,  and  had  been  de- 
spoiled of  everything  precious,  but  was  still  most  interesting  from 
a  suit  of  small  pictures,  drawn  on  the  wall  below  the  commence- 

*  Some  of  the  scenes  relate  to  the  mysteries  of  Ceres  and  the  mysteries  of 
Bacchus.  The  two  have  an  intimate  relation  with  each  other,  as  they  both  come 
from  the  mysteries  of  Isis  and  Osiris. 


CHAP.  IV.]  OP   AMERICA.  23 

ment  of  the  roof,  about  a  foot  high,  representing  the  war  of  the 
cranes  and  the  pygmies. 

The  catacombs  are  among  the  tumuli  on  the  road  to  Theodosia, 
and  are  deep  excavations  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  deep,  seven  or 
eight  feet  long,  and  two  and  a  half  feet  broad,  and,  on  descending 
and  entering  by  an  arched  door,  large  subterranean  chambers  are 
found  cut  in  the  white  calcareous  clay,  with  niches  all  around  for 
the  bodies.  Some  remains  of  coffins  are  to  be  found,  and  the  whole 
is  probably  a  Christian  work.  The  last  group  of  tumuli  to  be 
mentioned  are  those  of  the  kings,  at  what  is  called  the  Golden 
Mountain..  After  following  the  old  road  to  Theodosia  for  two 
miles,  Mount  Mithridates  is  seen  to  offer  a  passage  across  it  by  a 
narrow  valley.  The  mountain  rises  again  directly,  and  continues 
in  a  northwest  direction  to  the  Sea  of  Azof.  This  continuation  is 
called  the  Golden  Mountain.  An  enormous  tumulus,  which  rises 
above  the  road  where  it  passes  between  the  hills,  seems  to  an- 
nounce a  more  powerful  race  than  that  which  raised  the  tombs  of 
the  plain.  On  the  crest  of  the  mountain,  at  three  hundred  and 
twenty-three  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  rises  the  tumulus,  in 
the  form  of  a  cone,  one  hundred  feet  high  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty  in  diameter,  different  from  those  in  the  neighborhood,  because 
it  is  walled  from  top  to  bottom  like  a  Cyclopean  monument.  It  is 
cased  on  the  exterior  like  the  Pyramids,  with  large  blocks  of  Kertch 
stone,  cubes  of  three  or  four  feet  placed  without  cement  or  mortar. 
This  monument,  almost  unique  of  its  kind,  from  its  size,  was  a 
tomb,  and  from  all  times  had  been  the  object  of  a  number  of  mys- 
terious legends.  The  Tartar,  Turk,  and  more  ancient  traditions, 
spoke  of  immense  treasures  hidden  in  this  tomb,  which  was  known 
by  the  name  of  Altun  Obo,  or  the  Golden  Mountain.  The  tra- 
dition existed  that  there  was  an  entrance  to  the  tomb,  which  the 
Tartars  had  often  tried  to  find,  without  success.  It  was  not  until 
1832  that  Mr.  Kareiche  carefully  sought  for  it,  and  employed 
thirty-five  men  for  fifteen  days  in  attacking  the  tumulus  from  the 
southwest.  At  last  he  had  the  good  fortune  to  find  the  entrance  to 
a  gallery,  by  which  he  penetrated,  without  an  obstacle,  to  the 
centre  of  the  tumulus.  The  gallery  was  constructed  of  layers  of 
worked  stone,  without  cement,  and  was  sixty  feet  long,  ten  feet 
high — taking  in  the  Egyptian  roof — and  three  or  four  feet  broad. 
Arrived  at  the  end,  Kareiche  found  himself  on  the  edge  of  a  preci- 
pice which  opened  before  him.  He  saw  with  astonishment  that 
the  centre  of  the  tomb  was  formed  of  a  circular  tower  twenty-five 
feet  high  and  twenty  feet  in  diameter.  The  floor  of  this  construc- 
tion was  ten  feet  below  the  floor  of  the  gallery,  and  the  vaulted 
roof  was  composed  of  four  rows  of  advancing  stones. 


24  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

At  length  Kareiche  saw  that  he  could  descend  into  the  tomb 
by  stones  placed  at  distances  in  the  side,  and  was  hastening  to 
reap  the  treasures  promised  in  the  legend,  when  to  his  stupefac- 
tion he  perceived  that  the  tomb  was  empty.  On  the  ground  was 
a  large,  square  stone,  on  which  a  sarcophagus  might  have  been 
deposited,  and  half-way  up  the  wall  was  a  large,  empty  niche. 
He  searched  in  vain  to  penetrate  further ;  nothing  indicated  any 
passage,  and  it  is  still  an  enigma.  What  was  the  object  of  this 
expensive  and  magnificent  monument,  the  rival  of  the  Pyramids? 
The  distance  between  the  tower  and  the  exterior  Cyclopean  wall 
is  filled  with  fragments  of  stone  from  the  fine  quarries  in  the 
neighborhood.* 

The  modern  Greek  legend  makes  this  the  tomb  of  Mithridates, 
although  it  is  well  known  that  he  was  buried  at  Sinope.  This 
tomb  is  placed  exactly  at  the  spot  where  the  two  branches  of  the 
long  rampart  meet,  which  extends  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Sea 
of  Azof.  It — the  rampart — is  visible  extending  from  the  foot  of 
the  tumulus  to  the  gorge  of  Katerles,  which  opens  in  a  second 
range  of  hills  parallel  to  the  Golden  Mountain  and  Mount  Mithri- 
dates, and  the  peaks  above  it  are  covered  with  ruins.  To  the 
south  the  rampart  is  quite  effaced,  where  the  road  to  Theodosia 
crosses  it,  but  beyond  it  its  zigzags  are  seen  as  far  as  the  White 
Cape,  where  it  of  course  terminates. 

This  rampart  was  probably  the  ancient  boundary  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Panticapseum,  and  the  primitive  kingdom  of  the  Bospho- 
rus  before  the  conquest  of  Nympha3um  and  Theodosia,  which 
were  added  to  the  kingdom,  the  first  in  410  B.C.,  and  the  second 
about  390  B.C. 

Within  the  ramparts,  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  paces  to  the 
east,  near  Kertch,  there  is  another  monument  of  the  same  kind  as 
the  other,  but  unfinished.  It  consists  of  a  circular  esplanade  five 
hundred  paces  around  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  in  diame- 
ter, with  an  exterior  covering  of  Cyclopean  masonry,  built  of 
worked  stone,  three  feet  long  and  high.  There  are  five  layers  of 
these,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  the  intention  of  the  builders  to 
raise  a  monument  like  the  one  before  mentioned.  Perhaps  a 
revolution,  or  the  death  of  the  prince  who  was  building  his  own 
monument,  like  the  kings  of  Egypt,  caused  the  work  to  be  aban- 
doned. Several  ranges  of  enormous  stones  between  this  and  the 
first  monument  indicate  ancient  walls  of  houses,  and  adjoining 
these  are  traces  of  ancient  gardens,  while  on  the  slope  of  the 

*  Spelicer,  in  his  "Travels  in  Circassia,  Krim  Tartary,"  etc.,  in  1832,  says 
the  tumulus  called  by  the  Tartars  Altyn  Obo,  or  the  Hill  of  Gold,  pretended  to 
have  been  the  tomb  of  Mithridates,  was  opened  in  1830. 


/o  /i  a  4. 
l.i. 


VergcHok. 


Arckrnes.* 


INTERIOR  OF    ROYAL    IOMB  OF    KOULO&A,  NEAR 


A .  VealibuXe. 
B  .  Tomb  of  King. 
C.  Bones  of  iHekmg. 
3) .   Bone*  iff ifoa  Quefirt. 

1.  KeaLp-of  sh-arp  flints. 

2 .  Arma  avui  whip,  of  King. 

3 .  "FVve  sratuettea  in.  elewam/. 

4 .  Alleaclant  of  King- 
s'. .Bonefc  of  a.liorsef  with-  grew 


6-  Hundreols   <if  •arrow* 
7.  Two  large  lances. 
S.  Queen's  gbleUn.  vase. 
9.  Cradter  in.  silver. 

10.  Second  cr«,ter. 

11.  AmpKoree-,  coitlaxn-in. 

12.  Bronze  vase . 

13.  Silver  guV 

tie  sane 


wine  of  Thasus. 


,  V/<1H,  mutton, borves. 


*  1  arckiua  =  28  mckes. 


"\  TV 


a*  Alias. 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  25 

mountain,  in  the  midst  of  the  ruins,  near  Khouter  Scassi,  there  is 
a  fine  well  in  good  preservation,  cased  with  wrought  stone  and 
full  of  water.  This  seems  extraordinary  in  the  midst  of  a  country 
now  so  dry,  desert,  and  devoid  of  wood,  but  proves  that  in  the 
time  of  Panticapseum  the  general  aspect  of  the  land  was  very  dif- 
ferent, since  country-houses  and  trees  existed  where  there  are  now 
only  wild  rocks. 

The  view  from  the  summit  of  the  hill,  and  still  more  so  from 
the  top  of  the  tumulus,  is  magnificent,  and  extends  as  far  as  the 
rock  of  Opouk,  the  ancient  Kimmericum,  which  is  twenty-four 
miles  distant. 

There  is  a  spur  of  the  Golden  Mountain  running  south,  called 
by  the  Tatars  Kouloba,*  or  the  hill  of  cinders,  beyond  the  ancient 
rampart,  and  four  miles  from  Kertch.  Near  it  is  a  tumulus  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  feet  in  diameter,  and  some  soldiers,  carry- 
ing away  stones  from  it,  discovered  an  interior  construction  [3]. 
They  soon  arrived  at  a  vestibule  six  feet  square,  turned  to  the 
north,  covered  by  an  Egyptian  roof  of  three  rows  of  stones,  which 
they  were  obliged  to  remove  in  order  to  penetrate  further,  because 
this  roof  was  supported  by  beams  reduced  to  dust.  At  the  end 
of  the  vestibule  was  a  door  eight  feet  ten  inches  high  and  five  feet 
nine  inches  wide,  closed  half-way  up  by  large  wrought  stones,  and 
above  by  those  of  the  common  size.  Large  pieces  of  wood  formed 
the  covering,  but  the  beams  were  reduced  to  dust  and  the  stones 
which  closed  the  entrance  supported  the  upper  part,  which 
threatened  soon  to  fall.  This  difficulty  was  soon  removed,  and 
two  savans,  Mr.  Dubrux  and  Dr.  Lang,  were  commissioned  by  the 
Governor  to  enter  alone  and  take  an  inventory  of  the  contents. 
An  immense  crowd  besieged  the  approaches,  which  were  guarded 
by  soldiers,  while  the  commissioners  entered. 

The  tomb  was  almost  square,  measuring  fifteen  feet  from  east 
to  west  and  fourteen  feet  from  north  to  south,  and  the  entrance- 
door  was  not  in  the  centre  of  the  wall.  The  walls  were  built  of 
hewn  stone,  each  three  feet  long  and  two  feet  high.  Five  rows  of 
stones  raised  it  to  seven  feet  eight  inches,  and  then  began  the 
spring  of*  the  Egyptian  arch,  formed  of  seven  rows  of  advancing 
stones,  the  front  row  advancing  five  inches  and  the  upper  rows 
six  or  eight  inches,  so  that  at  the  top  there  only  remained  a  space 
two  feet  square,  filled  by  a  single  stone.  The  tomb  was  thus  six- 
teen feet  high.  At  ten  feet  ten  inches  above  the  pavement  began 
the  wooden  ceiling,  which  had  fallen  when  the  beams  which  sup- 

*  "Dubois,"  vol.  v.,  pp.  194-288. 


26  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

ported  it  gave  way.  The  floor  had  a  stone  pavement,  and  the 
principal  place  was  occupied  by  a  sarcophagus  formed  of  a  case 
of  yew  wood  eight  feet  nine  inches  long  and  ten  inches  high,  and 
was  joined  by  thick  beams,  in  which  the  outward  planks  were 
fitted.  The  side  facing  the  interior  of  the  tomb  was  open,  and  the 
interior  was  divided  into  two  parts  by  a  plank.  In  one  of  the  com- 
partments, larger  than  the  other,  and  nearer  to  the  wall,  was  ex- 
tended the  body  (skeleton)  of  a  man  of  great  stature.  The  thigh- 
bone was  seventeen  and  one-half  inches  long,  and,  the  skull 
extremely  thick.  On  his  brow  were  the  remains  of  a  mitra,  or 
Persian  cap,  of  which  the  top  is  narrower  than  the  base.  Two 
plates  of  gold  ornamented  the  top  and  the  bottom ;  the  one  below 
was  one  and  a  half  inches  broad,  ornamented  with  festoons  and 
griffins,  the  emblem  of  Panticapasum,  and  was  of  less  careful 
workmanship  than  the  upper  plate,  ornamented  with  figures, 
leaves  and  arabesques.  Around  the  neck  was  a  grand  necklace 
in  massive  gold,  of  beautiful  workmanship,  in  the  form  of  an 
open  ring  and  twisted  like  a  cord,  with  the  extremities  passing 
one  over  the  other.  At  each  end  was  a  Scythian  on  horseback, 
and  the  extremities  were  for  a  distance  of  two  inches  enameled 
with  blue  and  green.  Similar  ones  have  frequently  been  found 
of  copper,  and  rarely  of  any  other  metal,  in  the  tombs  of  the 
north,  and,  among  others,  in  those  of  the  ancient  Lithuanians. 
The  arms  were  extended  on  each  side  of  the  body,  and  on  the 
right  arm  above  the  elbow  was  a  circle  or  bracelet  in  gold  an  inch 
broad,  and  adorned  with  reliefs.  Below  the  elbows  were  two 
other  bracelets  in  electrum,*  one  and  a  half  inches  broad.  A  third 
pair  of  open  bracelets  in  fine  gold  encircled  the  wrists  and  fin- 
ished in  Persian  winged  sphinxes,  the  claws  of  which  held  the 
thick  thread  of  gold  which  served  to  close  the  bracelet  when  it 
was  passed  over  the  wrist.  The  workmanship  was  very  fine,  and 
their  thickness  about  half  an  inch.  At  the  feet  of  the  king  were 
a  multitude  of  little  sharp  flints  piled  up.  In  Scythian  mourning 
it  was  customary  to  tear  the  face  and  the  rest  of  the  body  with 
such  instruments,  and  they  were  then  placed  in  the  tombs  as  a 
mark  of  grief;  some  bodies  found  in  a  tumulus  near  Sifnpherpol 
were  covered  with  them.  In  the  narrower  compartment  of  the 
sarcophagus  were  placed  the  gods  and  arms  of  the  king.  First 
there  was  his  iron  sword,  the  handle  of  which,  covered  with 
leaves  of  gold,  was  adorned  with  figures  of  hares  and  foxes  em- 
bossed on  the  gold.  Beside  the  sword  lay  the  Tcherkess  or  Cos- 

*  A  mixture  of  gold  and  silver. 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  27 

sack  whip  (called  nogaik)  adorned  with  a  leaf  of  gold,  and  above 
it  was  the  shield  in  fine  gold.  The  thickness  of  the  latter  was 
about  that  of  a  five-franc  piece,  and  its  shape  showed  that  it  was 
principally  a  protection  for  the  shoulder,  and  fitted  to  the  arm. 
It  was  eight  and  a  half  inches  long  and  seven  and  a  half  broad, 
and  its  weight  was  one  and  a  half  pounds  of  fine  gold.  The 
umbo  or  centre  of  the  shield  was  surrounded  by  a  simple  circular 
fillet,  and  one  with  the  egg  pattern,  leaving  an  interval  of  three 
and  a  half  lines,  in  which  were  chiselled  dolphins  and  other  fishes. 
The  rest  of  the  shield  was  divided  into  twelve  compartments  by  a 
fillet,  and  was  covered  with  masques  imitating  the  head  of  Me- 
dusa, alternating  with  faces  with  pointed  beards,  and  flies  and 
heads  of  sea-horses. 

The  bow  and  its  wooden  case  were  reduced  to  dust,  and 
there  remained  only  the  plate  in  electrum  which  ornamented  the 
quiver.  It  was  adorned  with  embossed  work  representing  a  wild 
goat  seized  by  a  tiger,  and  a  deer  attacked  in  front  by  the  griffin 
of  Panticapseum,  and  behind  by  the  lion  of  Phanagoria.  The 
deer  was  the  emblem  of  the  town  of  Diana,  which  was  Kherson. 
A  sea-horse  filled  the  under-part  of  the  plate,  and  a  mask  the 
other  extremity.  Above  the  tail  of  the  tiger  was  written  the 
Greek  word  HOPNAXO,  engraved  on  the  metal.  Some  suppose 
this  to  mean  Pharnaces,  the  son  of  Mithridates,  whose  tomb  this 
may  be,  but  Dubois  considers  it  the  name  of  the  artist,  which, 
under  the  more  recent  form,  QAPNAKOF,  frequently  recurs  in  the 
inscriptions  of  Sindika,  now  Anapa. 

Among  these  arms  was  found  one  boot  in  bronze,  and  its  fellow 
was  on  the  right  of  the  king,  opposite  the  head.  In  the  same  com- 
partment and  near  the  head  of  the  king  were  found,  in  the  exterior 
angle,  five  statuettes  in  electrum.  One  figure  represented  two  Scyth- 
ians embracing  one  another  and  tightly  holding  a  horn,  probably 
filled  with  hydromel.  The  horn  is  like  those  which  all  the 
statues,  or  babas,  so  often  found  in  one  part  of  Southern  Russia, 
hold  with  both  hands.  Another  figure  holds  a  purse  in  his  right 
hand  and  a  strange  instrument  in  his  left,  and  is  like  a  Celtic 
Mercury.  There  was  also  the  Scythian  Hercules  among  these 
divinities.  Their  costume  recalled  the  Sclavonic  and  Tatar 
dress,  and  particularly  the  tunic  of  sheepskin,  which  the  Tatars 
call  toun  or  teretoun,  the  Russians  touloup,  which  was  the  Scythian 
garment  found  in  the  most  ancient  monuments.  The  fleece  is 
turned  inwards,  or  is  only  edged  with  fur,  and  it  is  found  of  all 
lengths,  from  the  short  Tatar  tunic  and  the  Sclavonic  kalskaveika 
to  the  long  sheepskin  gown  of  the  Russian  peasant.  These  different 


28  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

kinds  are  all  visible  in  the  different  dresses  of  the  figures  of  this 
tomb,  where  may  be  recognized  the  real  Lithuanian  sermedje  and 
the  Tcherkess  tchok. 

Thus  was  arranged  the  sarcophagus  of  the  king,  and  around  it, 
on  the  pavement,  were  the  objects  which  completed  the  furniture 
of  the  tomb,  in  which  nothing  had  been  forgotten  which  could 
contribute  to  the  material  needs  of  life.  At  his  feet  a  kind  friend 
had  placed  three  large  cauldrons  of  molten  bronze.  Two  were  oval 
or  oblong  and  one  was  spherical,  and  all  reposed  on  a  cylindrical 
foot,  of  which  the  base  spread  out  into  three  hooks,  to  fix  it  on  the 
soil.  These  three  vases  had  been  often  on  the  fire  and  used  for 
cooking ;  there  was  a  thick  coat  of  soot  still  on  them,  and  the  inte- 
rior was  filled  with  mutton-bones. 

There  was  another  oblong  vase  near  the  door,  filled  in  the  same 
manner.  After  the  kitchen  of  the  king  came  his  provision  of 
wine  and  his  drinking-cups.  The  wine  was  contained  in  four  am- 
phorae placed  upright  against  the  wall  on  the  right.  On  the  handle 
of  one  was  inscribed  BA21  and  below  A P ETON,  and  in  the  midst 
was  a  fish.  These,  then,  were  filled  with  wine  of  Thasos,  which, 
to  judge  by  the  quantity  of  amphorae  found  in  the  tombs  bearing 
this  name,  was  the  favorite  wine.  Two  large  crateres  were  natu- 
rally placed  near  the  amphorae,  because  the  Scythians  always 
drank  wine  mixed  with  water.  The  first,  the  nearest  to  the  door, 
was  of  silver,  nearly  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  and  contained 
four  drinking-cups  in  silver,  two  of  which  were  of  beautiful  work- 
manship, particularly  the  one  which  terminated  below  in  the  head 
of  a  ram.  The  second  cratere,  in  bronze,  contained  also  four  silver 
drinking-cups,  the  largest  of  which  is  ornamented  with  chiseled 
work  gilt,  on  which  may  be  recognized  the  birds  and  fishes  of  the 
Black  Sea  and  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus.  On  the  right  is  a  duck 
plunging  and  seizing  a  fish,  and  under  it  swims  a  labra  and  a  stur- 
geon ;  and  further  on  a  cormorant,  with  extended  wings,  is  seizing, 
while  flying,  a  small  fish.  On  another  is  a  combat  of  a  wild  boar 
about  to  yield  under  the  claws  of  a  lion. 

On  the  right  is  a  toura*  of  the  Caucasus,  brought  to  the  ground 
by  two  griffins  of  Panticapaeum.  On  the  left  the  deer  of  Kherson 
suffers  the  same  fate,  being  torn  by  a  lion,  while  a  female  leopard, 
with  open  mouth,  is  about  to  seize  it  by  the  throat.  In  the  part 
which  the  wild  boar,  the  deer  and  the  toura  play  in  the  midst  of 

*  "The  toura  is  an  animal  in  the  Caucasus,  like  a  wild  bull,  with  enormous  horns 
and  very  thick  skull,  as  it  throws  itself  down  precipices  on  its  head.  It  is  the 
famous  game  of  the  Mingrelians  and  Ossete  princes." 

Singular  that  this  bull  should  so  much  resemble  a  Kocky  Mountain  sheep. 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  29 

griffins  and  lions  there  is  a  manifest  design.  The  lion  of  Phana- 
goria  and  the  griffin  of  Panticapseum  are  not  always  represented 
as  victorious  without  intention,  while  the  deer  of  Kherson,  the 
toura  of  the  Caucasus  and  the  wild  boar  of  the  Kuban  are  always 
vanquished  by  them. 

Beyond  the  drinking-cups  were  two  lances  and  several  bundles 
of  arrows  laid  along  the  wall.  The  last  had  triangular  points  in 
bronze,  with  three  barbs,  and  are  similar  to  those  found  in  Scythian 
monuments  in  Southern  Russia.  Between  the  arrows  and  the  sar- 
cophagus there  appeared  a  second  skeleton,  laid  on  the  pavement 
and  much  covered  with  earth,  but  adorned  so  richly  that  it  was 
impossible  not  to  recognize  the  wife  of  the  king,  who  thus  accom- 
panied him  to  his  last  resting-place.  She  was  laid  in  the  same 
direction  as  the  king,  and  wore  on  her  forehead  a  mitre  as  he, 
with  a  plate  in  electrum  terminating  it,  which  showed  a  skilful 
workman.  Four  women  in  Greek  costume  sit  in  the  midst  of 
garlands  of  lotuses,  the  stalks  of  which  form  seats  and  backs.  Four 
masks  of  lions  formed  on  each  side  the  means  by  which  the  plate 
was  attached  to  the  mitre.  On  the  bottom  the  mitre  was  bordered 
by  a  diadem  of  gold  adorned  all  round  with  small  enamelled  rosettes. 
She  bore  on  her  neck,  like  the  king,  a  grand  necklace  with  the 
ends  movable,  and,  instead  of  horsemen,  the  extremities  were 
formed  of  couchant  lions.  She  had  on,  besides,  another  necklace 
of  gold  filigree,  to  which  were  suspended  small  chains  supporting 
small  bottles  of  fine  gold.  Five  medallions  of  exquisite  workman- 
ship and  different  sizes  descended  on  her  bosom,  and  they  were 
fastened  together  by  small  chains  and  bottles.  These  were  enam- 
elled blue  and  green  like  other  objects  that  have  been  mentioned. 
The  two  largest  of  the  medallions  represented  Greek  Minervas, 
but  evidently  worked  at  Panticapasum,  because  of  the  chiselled 
griffins  on  the  wings  of  her  helmet.  The  attributes  of  Minerva, 
besides  the  owl  and  the  winged  Pegasus,  are  the  serpents  of  Me- 
dusa which  ought  to  ornament  her  shield,  a  winged  sphinx  like 
that  on  the  bracelets  of  the  king,  and  a  row  of  deer-heads  on  the 
visor  of  the  helmet.  The  arabesque  which  surrounds  the  helmet 
is  also  enamelled  [4]. 

At  the  foot  of  the  skeleton  was  discovered  a  magnificent  vase  in 
electrum,  resembling,  in  form  and  size,  those  of  the  second  cratere, 
which  stands  on  a  foot.  It  probably  contained  perfumes,  partic- 
ularly as  some  of  the  little  bottles,  usually  called  lachrymatories, 
were  found,  as  in  the  other  tombs.  The  exquisite  chiselling?  upon 
it  are  of  the  greatest  interest  for  art  and  history.  Four  groups  of 
figures  succeed  each  other  as  episodes  in  the  same  history,  in  which 


30  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

the  personage  playing  the  principal  part  reappears  three  times. 
In  the  first  group,  beginning  from  left  to  right,  he  is  seated,  the 
two  hands  and  the  head  leaning  on  the  lance,  listening  attentively 
to  the  report  of  a  warrior.  The  king  is  known  by  the  royal  band 
around  his  head,  perhaps  the  very  one  that  is  placed  in  the  tomb. 
His  costume  is  completely  Scythian ;  he  has  the  narrow  trousers, 
the  boots,  and  the  tchok  which  has  been  described.  The  warrior 
who  makes  the  report  is  also  a  Scythian,  kneeling  before  him, 
dressed  as  on  the  Etruscan  vases,  and  armed  with  lance  and  buck- 
ler. Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  has  the  warlike  quiver. 
Their  hair  is  long  and  spread  over  their  shoulders,  but  the  bearer 
of  the  dispatch  has  no  diadem  ;  he  wears  only  the  bachelik  of  the 
Caucasus,  or  the  Phrygian  bonnet — or,  rather,  the  Lithuanian  bon- 
net— which  has  for  many  centuries  remained  the  same.  The  next 
figure,  with  its  back  to  the  messenger  and  kneeling  on  one  knee, 
is  much  occupied  in  bending  a  bow,  which  may  be  that  of  the 
king ;  for  this  warrior  has  his  own  by  his  side.  They  are  prepar- 
ing for  war.  This  war  then  takes  place;  and  next  are  depicted  the 
fruits  of  it,  for  the  king  has  been  badly  wounded.  He  is  recog- 
nized in  the  half-sitting,  half-kneeling  figure,  from  whom  the  Scyth- 
ian magus  is  extracting  a  tooth  from  the  left  side  of  the  jaw. 
On  examining  the  skull  of  the  king  deposited  in  the  museum  it 
may  be  seen  that  the  lower  jaw  presents  the  marks  of  a  wound, 
with  a  fracture  which  has  carried  away  several  teeth  ;  for  the  two 
large  teeth  are  wanting,  and  a  third,  shorter  than  the  others,  has 
been  attacked  by  a  disease  which  has  made  the  jaw  swell. 

A  fourth  episode  represents  the  king  wounded  in  the  leg;  a 
warrior  is  fomenting  it  with  bandages.  In  this  place  the  trousers 
and  a  part  of  the  tchok  is  covered  with  something  that  looks  like 
embroidery.  These  are  the  little  golden  and  electrum  scales  sewed 
on  the  garments.  Strabo  says  that  the  Aorses  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tanais  wear  gold  on  their  garments.*  These  little  scales  are  em- 
bossed, pierced  with  holes  at  the  sides  to  sew  them  on,  and  repre- 
sent an  infinity  of  subjects.  This  tomb  furnishes  some  very  rich 
examples  of  them. 

On  attentively  examining  the  interior  when  it  was  first  opened, 
it  was  perceived  that  at  the  foot  of  the  walls  were  heaped  up  an  in- 
finity of  these  little  plates.  The  walls  showed  signs  of  having  had 
pegs  of  wood  fixed  in  them,  to  which  were  suspended  the  rich 
wardrobes  of  these  great  personages.  The  clothes  had  fallen,  and 
nothing  was  found  but  a  mass  of  dust,  mixed  with  these  little 

*  "Strabo,"  lib.  xi.,  p.  486. 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  31 

plates,  which  were  carefully  collected.  The  greater  number  were 
in  the  form  of  triangles  or  roses  of  different  sizes,  without  any  re- 
lief; on  others  were  fine  heads  of  women  or  divinities,  and  figures 
of  griffins,  lions,  hares,  foxes  and  other  animals.  One  of  them, 
with  the  figure  of  a  woman  upon  it,  proves  that  if  the  men  of  that 
period  wore  the  Caucasian  dress,  the  same  was  the  case  with  the 
women,  whose  long  veil  or  tchadra  seems  just  the  same  as  that 
which  the  Caucasian  women  still  wear.  The  robe  is  flowing.  One 
of  the  women  bears  in  her  hand  a  goblet,  and  in  the  other  a  key. 
Another  little  plate  represents  two  Scythian  archers  back  to  back, 
ready  to  shoot  their  arrows.  Two  others  represent  Scythian  hunt- 
ers on  horseback,  pursuing  a  hare.  In  the  left  hand  they  hold 
the  reins  and  in  the  right  the  javelin. 

By  the  side  of  the  queen  were  found  two  golden  bracelets, 
with  bas-reliefs  in  two  ranges ;  that  is  to  say,  six  figures  in  each 
bracelet,  the  breadth  of  which  is  three  and  a  half  inches.  Around 
the  head  were  disposed  six  knives,  with  handles  of  ivory,*  the 
blades  of  which  were  like  surgical  instruments.  A  seventh  knife 
had  a  handle  of  gold  and  reliefs  upon  it.  A  bronze  mirror  with 
a  handle  of  gold,  ornamented  with  a  griffin  pursuing  a  deer  in  re- 
lief, was  also  one  of  the  objects  which  surrounded  the  queen. 

According  to  the  Scythian  customs  the  queen  must  have  been 
strangled  before  being  placed  in  the  tomb  of  her  husband,  and  the 
same  cruel  laws  required  the  presence  of  the  king's  servant.  He 
was  found,  accordingly,  stretched  across  the  tomb,  along  the 
southern  wall,  and  around  him  were  many  plates  of  gold.  His 
helmet  and  greaves,  in  silver,  very  much  oxidized,  were  laid,  with 
the  bones  of  a  horse,  in  an  excavation  two  feet  square,  which  occu- 
pied the  southeast  corner  of  the  tomb.  Among  the  things  that 
were  taken  out  of  the  cavern  were  several  highly-worked  pieces  of 
wood  which  belonged  to  musical  instruments,  the  only  thing  want- 
ing to  complete  the  whole  establishment.  Several  of  the  pieces 
showed  designs,  executed  with  an  engraver's  point,  of  exquisite 
workmanship.  These  were  a  chariot,  a  woman  holding  a  helmet 
in  her  hand,  a  slave  with  a  large  bowl  giving  drink  to  a  horse,  some 
women  seated,  and  other  designs. 

If  all  the  objects  which  adorned  the  inside  of  the  tomb  bear  the 
stamp  of  Scythian  ideas  and  the  customs  and  usages  of  that  na- 
tion, the  same  cannot  be  said  of  the  ornaments  and  pictures  of  the 
sarcophagus  of  yew  wood,  which  presents  in  perfect  preservation 
paintings  on  wood  which  have  resisted  upwards  of  twenty  centu- 

*  Ivory  would  seem  to  indicate  an  intercourse  with  India  or  Africa. 


32  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.   IV. 

ries.  These  paintings  covered  the  panels  of  the  sarcophagus.  The 
principal  subject  is  entirely  Greek,  and  proves  that  if  they  buried 
a  king  surrounded  by  Scythian  luxury,  Greek  artists  were  em- 
ployed at  his  interment.  Two  Victories,  mounted  on  chariots, 
turned  one  against  the  other,  filled  the  extremity  of  the  picture, 
of  which  seven  Greek  figures,  in  different  positions,  occupied  the 
centre,  three  women  and  four  men.  A  goose  and  a  swan  are 
mixed  with  these  figures,  all  represented  as  very  agitated,  running, 
gesticulating,  with  expressions  of  joy,  which  is  justified  by  the 
approach  of  the  two  triumphal  cars.  The  chariots  are  drawn  by 
four  white  horses,  two  of  which  are  spotted.  On  the  frieze  which 
surrounded  the  panel  above,  the  artist  has  represented  warriors 
drawing  the  bow. 

When  the  tomb  was  opened  the  savans  deputed  for  the  purpose 
were  busy  in  making  a  plan  and  putting  down  the  position  of  each 
object  which  they  found.  This  occupied  the  whole  day,  while  two 
soldiers  guarded  the  entrance.  These  gentlemen  in  the  evening 
thought  their  work  was  finished,  but,  for  greater  protection,  the 
sentinels  kept  at  their  post,  with  orders  to  let  no  one  pass.  The 
crowd  which  visited  the  tomb  during  the  night  from  curiosity  was 
so  great  that  the  sentinels  could  not  keep  it  back.  The  people 
penetrated  into  the  tomb,  examined  everything,  and  then  were  dis- 
covered the  little  plates  of  gold  which  covered  the  pavement. 

While  they  were  thus  examining  and  disputing  about  the 
smallest  spoils,  some  person  perceived  that  the  tomb  resounded  as 
if  there  was  something  hollow  underneath.  Raising  the  stones  of 
the  hollow  square  in  the  corner,  they  discovered  a  second  tomb 
below,  much  richer  than  the  first,  and  from  this  the  masses  of  gold 
were  drawn  which  for  several  years  afterward  were  in  circulation 
in  Kertch.  There  was  not  a  Greek  woman  there  who  did  not  re- 
tain some  relic  of  this  great  discovery,  especially  in  the  form  of 
ear-rings.  It  was  said  that  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty 
pounds  weight  of  gold  jewelry  were  extracted  from  these  tombs, 
of  which  the  Government  obtained  about  fifteen  pounds,  and  the 
rest  was  dispersed.  In  this  pillage  the  people  acted  in  the  most 
barbarous  manner ;  they  tore  the  objects  from  one  another,  and 
chopped  up  the  most  precious  with  the  hatchet.  Such  was  the 
fate  of  the  golden  shield  of  the  lower  tomb,  part  of  which  the 
Government  bought  back,  piece  by  piece,  for  the  weight  in  gold. 
On  one  of  the  pieces  recovered  there  was  a  Greek  woman  like  a 
Fury,  with  her  long  hair  blown  by  the  tempest,  bearing  in  her 
hands  a  lance  and  torch ;  wolves,  of  which  one  carries  a  labrus 
in  its  mouth,  surround  her,  and  complete  the  picture  of  this  ter- 


CHAP.  IV.]  OF    AMERICA.  33 

rible  divinity.  The  tomb  is  probably  anterior  in  date  to  the  reign 
of  Mithridates,  both  from  the  style  of  the  ornaments  and  various 
minor  circumstances.  The  letter  P  (P)  is  often  repeated  on  the 
reliefs,  and  is  written  with  one  side  shorter  than  the  other,  a  form 
which  quite  disappears  before  the  time  of  Mithridates  the  Great. 
It  is  so  written  on  the  great  vase  in  electrum,  which  is  of  extraor- 
dinary enigmatical  shape,  representing  a  deer  lying  down,  while 
on  its  sides  are  chiselled  a  griffin,  a  ram  like  the  one  of  Jupiter 
Ammon,  a  lion,  and  a  dog  turning  his  head,  all  of  which  appear 
on  the  most  ancient  medals  of  Panticapseum.  Again,  the  two  me- 
dallions of  Minerva  with  her  attributes,  of  exquisite  workmanship, 
must  have  been  made  at  a  time  when  the  kings  of  the  Bosphorus 
were  proud  of  their  alliance  with  Athens  and  of  being  citizens  of 
that  city,  as  were  Leucon,  Pserisades  I.  and  Eumeles.  At  a  later 
period  the  connection  ceased  between  the  Bosphorus  and  Athens. 
There  is,  besides,  no  sign  of  the  influence  of  Rome  in  any  part  of 
the  tomb.  Its  construction  is  very  ancient,  and  the  idea  of  prop- 
ping the  ceiling  with  posts  is  not  found  in  any  more  recent  tombs. 

The  Scythian  costume  also  was  much  in  vogue  under  the  Leu- 
conides,  as  most  of  the  figures  on  the  vases  wear  it.  We  might, 
indeed,  expect  at  that  period  to  find  the  Scythian  manners  and 
costumes  by  the  side  of  the  Greek  worship. 

The  value  and  abundance  of  the  remains  of  antiquity  found  at 
Kertch  naturally  required  a  museum,  which  has  been  built  by 
the  Government  on  the  Hill  of  Mithridates.  It  is  an  exact  copy 
of  the  Temple  of  Theseus  at  Athens.  When  Dubois  visited  the 
museum,  in  1832,  there  were  three  very  curious  skulls  in  it,  with 
remarkably  high  foreheads,  found  in  a  very  ancient  tumulus  near 
Yenicaleh,  which  probably  belonged  to  the  ancient  Kimmerians. 
The  only  perfect  skull  had  disappeared  a  few  months  afterwards, 
having  been  sold  by  the  conservator  for  100  francs  to  a  stranger, 
who  fortunately  destined  it  for  the  museum  at  Munich,  where  it 
will  be  preserved. 

The  quarantine  is  about  three  miles  distant  from  Kertch,  and 
within  its  boundary  are  the  ruins  of  Myrmekium,  the  highest  part 
of  which  is  on  a  promontory  overlooking  the  sea.  Here,  to  hoist 
a  flag-staff,  some  sailors  made  a  hole  in  the  rock,  and  were  sur- 
prised to  find  the  mast  suddenly  run  down  a  considerable  distance. 
On  examining  the  ground  they  found  that  there  was  a  tomb  un- 
derneath, which  had,  however,  been  opened,  and  nothing  remained 
in  it  but  a  very  fine  sarcophagus  ornamented  with  bas-reliefs, 
which  had  been  dragged  towards  the  entrance  and  then  left  muti- 
lated. 

3 


34  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IV. 

Yenicaleh  is  at  the  point  of  the  peninsula,  about  seven  miles 
from  Kertch.  Two  ranges  of  hills  with  coral-rag  peaks  cross  the 
peninsula  of  Kertch  and  terminate  at  the  Bosphorus — the  one 
at  Yenicaleh  and  the  other  a  little  higher  up.  Between  them  was 
formerly  a  bay,  which  is  now  a  salt  lake  closed  by  a  sand-bar. 
Higher  up  the  valley,  ranged  in  an  amphitheatre,  are  many  differ- 
ent kinds  of  springs,  and  the  celebrated  mud  volcanoes. 

At  Cape  Akbouroun,  or  the  White  Cape,  there  are  two  groups  of 
tumuli.  One  group  has  seven  tumuli  of  enormous  size.  The  other 
extends  along  a  ridge  which  joins  the  southern  spur  of  the  Golden 
Mountain.  Near  the  last  there  is  a  high  cliff,  with  a  depression  be- 
yond it,  which  has  the  appearance  of  an  immense  theatre  overlook- 
ing the  sea.  This  was  the  site  of  the  old  quarantine.  There  is  here 
a  rich  mine  of  phosphate  of  iron.  Between  the  iron  mine  and  a 
country-house  at  Akbouroun  are  the  ruins  of  Dia,  which  occupied 
the  extreme  southern  point  of  the  entrance  of  the  ancient  gulf  of 
Nymphseum,  now  Lake  Tchourbach. 

The  ancient  town  of  Nymphasum  occupied  exactly  this  south- 
ern point.  On  the  angle  between  the  ancient  gulf  and  the  Bos- 
phorus was  situated  the  town,  built  on  a  kind  of  platform.  The 
rampart  is  easily  traced,  and  the  faubourgs  were  around  the  me- 
tropolis. There  are  large  masses  of  ruins  everywhere,  and  the  soil 
is  several  feet  deep  in  broken  pottery,  much  of  which  is  Etruscan. 
At  about  one-third  of  a  mile  from  the  town  the  tumuli  begin,  and 
encircle  it  in  great  numbers.  The  town  was  founded  at  the  same 
time  as  Panticapasum,  and  fell  into  the  power  of  Pericles.  It  was 
betrayed  into  the  power  of  the  Bosphorians  in  410  B.C.  In  the 
time  of  Mithridates  it  was  still  a  strong  place,  where  he  lodged  the 
greater  part  of  his  army  which  he  destined  for  his  grand  expedi- 
tion by  the  Danube  and  the  Alps  against  the  Romans.  Nym- 
phseum  in  the  time  of  Pliny  existed  only  in  name. 

At  thirty  miles  from  Kertch,  on  the  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  is 
Opouk,  a  Tartar  village,  at  the  extremity  of  a  fine  roadstead. 
Near  here,  at  a  short  distance  from  the  shore,  are  two  rocky 
islands  called  Karavi,  and  by  these  the  place  is  identified  as  the 
ancient  Kimmericum.  Like  all  the  towns  of  the  peninsula  of 
Kertch  it  was  almost  deserted  in  the  time  of  Strabo,  50  B.C.  to  30 
A.D.,  and  at  a  later  period  was  called  Kibernicus.  There  is  not  a 
single  tumulus  to  be  seen,  probably  because  Kimmericum  was  not 
a  Miletian  city.  The  Genoese  are  supposed  to  have  carried  away 
the  remains  of  Kimmericum  in  order  to  build  Kaffa.* 

*  "  Eussiaon  the  Black  Sea  and  Sea  of  Azof,"  by  H.  D.  Seymour,  M.  P. 


CHAP.  V.]  OF    AMERICA.  35 


CHAPTER   V. 

The  Plain  of  Urmia,  near  Tabrez,  in  Persia — Tumuli  near  the  Village  of 
Dgalu — A  Temple  of  the  Ghebers  or  Fire-worshippers  on  the  West  Coast 
of  the  Caspian,  near  Bakoo,  in  the  Year  1824 — Topes,  Tepes  or  Tumuli  Nu- 
merous in  Afghanistan — The  Word  "Tepe" — Its  General  Use  in  Parts  of 
Asia  for  Tumulus — The  Turkoman  Tepes  or  Tumuli — Turkoman  Customs 
— Mounds  on  the  Euphrates — The  Mound  of  the  Emperor  Gordian. 

DR.  MORITZ  WAGNER,  who  from  February,  1842,  spent  three 
or  four  years  travelling  through  Georgia,  Persia  and  Koordistan, 
speaking  of  the  country  of  the  Kouban,  a  country  between  the 
Sea  of  Azof  and  the  Caspian,  north  of  the  Circassian  Mountains, 
and  drained  by  the  river  Kouban,  which  empties  into  the  Sea  of 
Azof,  says  :  "  We  continually  noticed  on  these  steppes  solitary  mo- 
hills,  i.e.,  rude  conical  mounds,  which  are  ascribed  to  the  Moguls, 
and  probably  extend  from  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  to  the  Caspian 
Sea." 

Speaking  of  the  plain  of  Urmia,  near  Tabrez,  or  Tauris,  in  Per- 
sia, he  says  :  "  The  plain  of  Urmia  is  about  50  miles  long,  and  18 
broad,  and  the  eye  embraces  nearly  its  entire  surface  from  Sier, 
nor  have  I  ever  seen  a  more  careful  cultivation  of  soil,  a  more 
judicious  system  of  artificial  irrigation,  or  a  denser  population. 
The  vast  area  presents  an  endless  series  of  villages,  gardens  and 
fields,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  The  plain  is  not  only  inter- 
sected by  minor  cross-ridges,  and  broken  by  solitary  elevations, 
but  it  presents  a  series  of  artificial  mounds  resembling  the  mohills 
of  the  Russian  steppes,  only  more  conspicuous  and  not  of  a  conical 
shape.  These  mounds  near  Lake  Urmia  are  covered  with  black 
earth,  meadows  and  grass.  When  the  earth  is  dug  through  there 
are  discovered  many  earthen  utensils,  human  skeletons  and  animal 
bones,  broken  pottery,  copper  and  silver  coins,  mostly  from  the 
time  of  the  Roman  supremacy,  and  a  few  of  the  Persia  era.  We 
visited  two  or  three  mounds  near  the  village  Dgalu.  I  could  trace 
at  this  place  the  vestiges  of  grand  excavations,  caverns  a  hundred 
paces  in  length,*  where  it  was  evident  that  search  had  been  made 
for  hidden  treasures.  The  common  result  of  such  excavations  is 
the  discovery  of  some  silver  coins ;  and  in  the  most  unsatisfactory 
cases  the  earth  ashes,  which  always  occur  and  are  very  useful  as 
manure,  offer  some  compensation  for  the  trouble  of  the  excava- 

*  The  inference  is  that  the  mound  was  a  hundred  or  more  paces  in  diameter, 
if  the  excavations  were  in  a  direct  line. 


36  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  V. 

tions.  The  natives  give  no  other  name  to  these  artificial  mounds 
than  Tepe,  and  the  current  traditions  refer  them  to  Zoroaster,  the 
Magi,  and  the  Fire- worshippers." 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  mention  here  that  in  this  same  region 
there  existed  as  late  as  the  year  1824  a  temple  of  the  Ghebers  or 
Fire-worshippers,  on  the  west  coast  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  sixteen 
miles  northeast  of  Bakoo,  on  the  extremity  of  the  peninsula  of 
Abasharon ;  it  was  an  inclosed  square  building  having  at  each 
angle  a  hollow  column,  higher  than  the  surrounding  buildings, 
from  the  top  of  which  issued  a  bright  flame,  which  was  probably 
sustained  by  the  gas  from  the  petroleum  spring  in  the  vicinity. 
There  was  a  constant  succession  of  pilgrims  who  came  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  India  and  relieved  each  other  every  two  or  three  years 
in  watching  the  holy  flame,  but  the  high  priest  remained  during 
life.* 

Lieutenant  Wood,  of  the  East  India  Navy,  on  his  march  from 
Khyber  Pass  to  Dhaka  on  the  Kabul  River,  in  1837,  saw  on  the 
summit  of  a  small  hill  one  of  those  "  topes  "  or  mounds  of  ma- 
sonry which  are  so  numerous  in  Afghanistan,  and  he  says : 
"  These  solid  structures  which  have  so  long  defied  time,  and  which 
the  apathy  of  the  natives  left  undisturbed,  have  at  last  fallen  be- 
fore the  enlightened  curiosity  of  Europeans ;  and  as  the  entire 
deposits  of  many,  consisting  of  coins  and  relics,  are  already  in 
the  East  India  Company's  Museum  and  other  cabinets  of  the 
learned,  we  hope  soon  to  hear  that  modern  research  has,-  by  de- 
ciphering their  inscriptions,  dispelled  all  doubt  of  the  purposes  for 
which  these  singular  piles  were  originally  erected. "f 

In  the  year  1863  the  Hungarian  traveller,  Arminius  Vambery, 
went  from  Gomush-tepe  encampment,  on  the  east  coast  of  the  Cas- 
pian Sea,  to  Kiva.  From  Kara-tepe,  on  the  west  side,  he  had 
gained  a  view  of  the  Caspian.  Here  I  wish  to  call  your  attention 
to  the  word  tepe,  which  has  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
mounds  on  the  plains  of  Troy,  the  mounds  on  the  plain  of  Urmia 
on  the  hills  of  Afghanistan  beyond  the  Hindu  Kosh,  and  on  the 
plains  of  Koordistan  beyond  the  Caspian,  and  to  Tepe  Kirman, 
the  name  of  a  mountain  in  the  Crimea.  Kara-tepe  signifies  Black 
Hill.  I  know  not  what  Gomush  means,  but  its  termination  tepe  ex- 
presses a  hill  or  mountain.  It  is  thus  seen  how  extensive  is  the 
use  of  the  word  Tepe  in  the  sense  of  hill,  hillock,  or  mountain. 
But  what  is  still  more  remakable,  this  word  Tepe  is  in  many  Mexi- 

*  Keppel. 

f  "Journey  to  the  Sources  of  the  Oxus,"  by  Lieut.  John  Wood,  E.  I.  Co., 

Navy. 


CHAP.  V.]  OF    AMERICA.  37 

can  compound  words,  as  Tehuantepec ;  Ometepec,  the  name  of  a 
district ;  Tepeaca,  a  town  on  a  mountain  plain ;  Cetlaltepec,  the 
mountain  Orizama ;  Chepultepec,  Quiotepec,  Popocatepec,  etc. 
Tepe  is  also  the  name  of  a  lofty,  precipitous  and  narrow  rock 
known  as  the  Devil's  Hill,  situated  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Missouri 
River.  It  is  also  a  name  given  by  some  of  the  western  Indians  to 
their  tent,  perhaps  on  account  of  its  conical  shape. 

From  the  encampment  of  Gomush-tepe,  the  caravan  in  which 
Vambery  travelled  followed  a  path  northeasterly,  departing  more 
and  more  from  the  sea-shore,  in  the  direction  of  two  great  mounds, 
of  which  one  bears  the  name  Karesafi,  and  the  other  that  of  Alton- 
Tokmak.  He  says  :  "  Besides  these  mounds  are  discovered,  here 
and  there,  numerous  joszka  (Turcoman  barrows) ;  with  these  ex- 
ceptions the  district  is  one  boundless  flat.  Scarcely  a  quarter  of  a 
league  from  Gomush-tepe  we  found  ourselves  proceeding  through 
splendid  meadows." 

Speaking  of  the  Turkoman  customs,  Vambery  says :  "  When 
perishes  a  chief  of  distinction,  one  who  has  well  earned  the  title 
of  bator  (valiant),  it  is  the  practice  to  throw  up  over  his  grave  a 
joszka  (large  mound) ;  to  this  every  good  Turkoman  is  bound  to 
contribute  at  least  seven  shovelsful  of  earth,  so  that  these  eleva- 
tions often  have  the  circumference  of  sixty  feet  and  a  height  of 
from  twenty  to  thirty  feet.  In  the  great  plains,  these  mounds  are 
very  conspicuous  objects.  The  Turkoman  knows  them  all  by  their 
names,  that  is  to  say,  by  the  names  of  those  that  rest  below.  This 
custom  existed  among  the  ancient  Huns,  and  is  in  use  in  Hungary 
even  at  the  present  day.  In  Kashan,  Upper  Hungary,  a  mound 
was  raised  a  few  years  ago  in  memory  of  Count  St.  Szechenyi." 

P.  V.  N.  Myers,  in  his  work,  "  Lost  Empires,"  says  :  <l  Large  ar- 
tificial mounds  are  seen  throughout  Syria  and  Mesopotamia, 
twenty  within  the  range  of  vision  in  Mesopotamia. 

"  From  Akterin  we  journeyed  for  three  days  towards  the  Eu- 
phrates. For  the  first  day  the  country  was  dotted  with  villages 
and  artificial  tells — mounds. 

"  From  Aleppo  to  the  Euphrates,  five  days'  journey,  the  two 
days'  march  from  Urfa,  all  round,  the  plain  was  dotted  with  arti- 
ficial tells. 

"  The  Assyrians,  the  Babylonians  and  Persians,  erected  their  pal- 
aces upon  lofty  artificial  terraces  or  platforms ;  the  cyclopean  ma- 
sonry of  the  Persepolis  platforms,  which  supported  the  palaces  of 
the  Persian  kings,  is  to-day  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  antiquarian 
world  ;  the  vast  dimensions  of  the  Babylonian  mounds  almost  ex- 
ceed belief.  The  mound  of  Kayunjik,  that  was  crowned  with 


38  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  V. 

Ninivite  palaces,  equally  astonishes  the  beholder  by  its  gigantic 
proportions.  From  its  enormous  mass  of  bricks  and  earth  could 
be  constructed  four  pyramids  equal  to  that  of  Cheops. 

"  At  Samarah  the  Romans  raised  a  huge  tumulus  over  the  re- 
mains of  the  Emperor  Julian,  which  to  this  day  stands  on  the 
banks  of  the  river — Euphrates — amid  the  ruins  of  ancient  cities." 
After  descending  the  Euphrates,  speaking  of  the  tell  at  Samarah, 
Myers  says :  "  Far  over  the  plain  to  the  north  rose  the  artificial 
tdl  of  Alijh,  probably  the  ancient  tumulus  raised  by  the  Roman 
army,  A.D.  363,  in  commemoration  of  the  burning  of  the  body  of 
their  general,  the  Emperor  Julian,  who  died  here." 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  who  bore  a  share  in  the  campaigns 
which  Julian  made  against  the  Persians,  wrote  a  history  of  his 
times,  and  lived  nearly  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  In  his 
history  he  says :  "  Procopius  was  sent  forward  with  the  remains 
of  Julian  to  bury  them  in  the  suburbs  of  Tarsus,  according  to 
his  directions  when  alive.  He  departed,  I  say,  to  fulfil  this 
commission,  and  as  soon  as  the  body  was  buried  he  quitted  Tar- 
sus." 

In  another  place  he  says :  "  The  emperor  (Jovian)  remained  a 
short  time  at  Antioch,  distracted  by  many  important  cases,  but 
desirous  above  all  to  proceed.  And  so,  sparing  neither  man  nor 
beast,  he  started  from  that  city  in  the  depth  of  winter,  and  made 
his  entrance  into  Tarsus,  a  noble  city  of  Cilicia.  Being  in  exces- 
sive haste  to  depart  from  thence,  he  ordered  decorations  for  the 
tomb  of  Julian,  which  was  placed  in  the  suburb,  on  the  road  lead- 
ing to  the  defiles  of  Mount  Taurus,  though  a  sound  judgment 
would  have  decided  that  the  ashes  of  such  a  prince  ought  rather 
to  be  placed  where  they  might  be  washed  by  the  Tiber  as  it  passes 
through  the  Eternal  City  and  winds  round  the  monuments  of  the 
ancient  gods." 

It  is  plain  that  this  great  tumulus  was  not  erected  over  the  re- 
mains of  Julian.  It  probably  is  that  of  Gordianus,  to  whom  "  a 
monument  was  raised  by  the  soldiers,  with  an  inscription,  at  a 
place  called  Zaitha,  twenty  miles  east  of  the  town  of  Circesium, 
not  far  from  the  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates." — Anthon. 

Gordian  was  killed  on  the  farthest  border  of  Persia,  in  the  place 
where  his  tomb  was  still  to  be  seen  in  the  year  363,  beyond  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Aboras,  between  the  cities  of  Cercusa,  which 
stood  near  the  conflux  of  those  two  rivers,  and  that  of  the  Dura, 
which  stands  very  near  the  latter,  and  is  about  twenty  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  former  river.  The  place  was  called  Zantha  or 
Zaithe.  There  the  soldiers  erected  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased 


CHAP.  VI.]  OF    AMERICA.  39 

emperor  a  stately  tomb,  with  an  epitaph  in  the  Greek,  Latin,  Per- 
sian, Hebrew  and  Egyptian  tongues. 

This  last  description  conforms  with  the  locality  where  Myers 
saw  this  great  tumulus.  As  Philip,  who  is  said  to  have  destroyed 
this  monument,  was  killed  A.D.  249,  and  the  monument  was  still 
to  be  seen  in  the  year  363,  it  is  evident  that  he  did  not  destroy  it. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

A  Siberian  Tumulus  and  Its  Contents — The  Tumuli  of  Bouchtarma — Tumuli  jn 
Chinese  Tartary  —  The  Tumuli  in  the  Region  of  the  Lepsou  —  Marco 
Polo's  Account  of  the  Burial  of  the  Grand  Khans — The  Great  Plain  of 
Central  Asia — Two  Remarkable  Tombs — The  Region  of  the  Karatau — An 
Immense  Ancient  Earthwork  and  Tumuli  on  the  Lepsou — Grand  Mountain 
Scenery  of  the  Karatau  and  the  Alatau — Fort  Kopal — Huge  Blocks  of  Stone 
on  the  Kora — A  Remarkable  Stone  Tumulus— The  Mineral  Spring  and 
Baths  at  Arasan — The  Pass  in  Karatau — The  Kerghis  Range — Large 
Tumuli — Tumuli  Covering  an  Area  One  Mile  by  Four. 

TUMULI  are  numerous  even  in  Siberia.  A  Siberian  barrow  was 
found  to  contain  three  contiguous  chambers  of  unhewn  stone. 
In  the  central  chamber  lay  the  skeleton  of  an  ancient  chief,  with 
his  sword,  his  spear  and  bow,  and  a  quiver  full  of  arrows.  The 
skeleton  reclined  upon  a  sheet  of  pure  gold  extending  the  whole 
length  of  the  body,  which  had  been  wrapped  in  a  mantle  em- 
broidered with  gold  and  studded  with  precious  stones.  Over  it 
was  extended  another  sheet  of  pure  gold.  In  a  smaller  chamber 
at  the  chief's  head  lay  the  skeleton  of  a  woman,  richly  attired, 
extended  on  a  sheet  of  pure  gold,  and  similarly  covered  with  a 
sheet  of  the  same  metal.  A  golden  chain  adorned  her  neck,  and 
her  arms  were  encircled  with  bracelets  of  pure  gold.  In  a  third 
chamber,  at  the  chief's  feet,  lay  the  skeleton  of  his  favorite  horse, 
with  saddle,  bridle  and  stirrups. 

Thomas  Witlam  Atkinson,  explorer  and  artist,  in  the  seven 
years  succeeding  that  of  1847  visited  the  region  of  country  ex- 
tending from  Kokan,  on  the  west,  to  the  eastern  end  of  the  Baikal, 
and  as  far  north  as  the  Chinese  town,  Tchin-si,  including  the 
immense  chain  Syan-shan,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  western  part 
of  Gobi. 

In  his  book  entitled  "  Exploration  and  Adventure  in  Siberia," 
he  says :  "  My  first  view  of  the  Irtisch  was  from  some  high  ground, 
when  I  beheld  the  river  winding  its  course  through  the  valley. 


40  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.   VI. 

Near  this  place — '  Bouchtarma  ' — are  many  large  tumuli.  The 
steppe  or  valley  around  Bouchtarma  is  of  considerable  extent. 
On  the  north  side  of  the  town  there  is  a  conical  mound  quite 
peculiar  in  its  form  and  exceedingly  picturesque,  and  in  the 
neighborhood  are  many  ancient  tumuli.  Some  have  been  opened, 
when  gold  and  warlike  implements  were  found  in  them.  I  have 
in  my  possession  a  part  of  a  copper  knife  or  dagger  dug  out  of 
one  of  these  mounds.  When  it  was  discovered  the  Cossacks 
thought  it  was  gold  and  cut  it  in  two.  This  instrument  must 
have  been  made  at  a  very  early  period.  A  little  below  the  mouth 
of  Bouchtarma  commences  the  finest  scenery  on  the  Irtisch." 

In  Chinese  Tartary,  within  three  hours'  ride  of  Tchin-si,  he  saw 
a*  large  tumulus,  around  which  were  many  smaller  ones,  and  he 
says :  "  Night  brought  us  to  the  Tarbogati,  along  which  we  must 
continue  our  journey.  Pursuing  about  ten  versts  to  the  north  of 
Tchoubachack,  we  passed  the  Chinese  pickets  about  noon  on  the 
second  day,  and  reached  a  rocky  valley  just  as  the  sun  was  setting 
behind  a  large  barrow.  It  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
high,  steep  and  regular  in  its  form.  I  ascended  to  the  top,  and 
found  the  tomb  of  a  Kerghis  sultan,  with  many  of  those  of  his 
followers  around  him.  This  tumulus  has  been  thrown  up  by  a 
people  of  whom  we  have  no  trace,  and  in  this  part  of  Asia  such 
ancient  works  are  numerous."  At  another  place  he  had  seen  the 
summit  of  a  hill  studded  with  them,  and  some  of  great  antiquity. 

Speaking  of  this  same  region  he  says :  "  There  are  seven  streams 
running  from  the  Alatou  down  the  steppe,  and  three  find  their 
way  into  the  Lake  Tengiz;  the  others  are  lost  in  the  sands  of  the 
steppe,  on  which  they  form  extensive  and  dangerous  marshes. 
There  are  many  and  some  very  large  tombs  scattered  over  the 
steppe,  built  at  different  periods,  and  by  different  races.  The 
great  tumuli  are  the  most  ancient.  One  of  these  was  composed  of 
stones ;  it  is  a  circle  of  three  hundred  and  sixty-four  feet  in  diame- 
ter, forming  a  dome-like  mound,  thirty -three  feet  high.  The 
stones  have  been  rounded  in  the  Lepsou,  and  were  brought  from 
that  river,  which  runs  through  the  valley,  about  eight  versts  dis- 
tant. None  exceed  twelve  inches  in  diameter,  but  most  of  them 
are  smaller.  To  whom  this  tomb  belongs  the  Kerghis  have  not 
even  a  tradition ;  they  attribute  all  such  works  to  demons,  and 
say  their  master,  Shaitan  (Satan,  the  Devil),  has  been  the  chief 
director.  Another  kind  of  tomb  of  more  recent  date  is  circular 
in  its  plan,  twenty-five  feet  in  diameter,  with  walls  of  stone  four 
feet  thick,  carried  up  to  the  height  of  fifty  feet,  taking  the  form  of 
a  blast-furnace,  with  an  aperture  at  the  top  and  an  opening  on  the 


CHAP.  VI.]  OF    AMERICA.  41 

side  two  feet  square  and  four  feet  from  the  ground.  Through  this 
I  obtained  access  to  the  interior,  where  I  found  two  graves  covered 
with  large  blocks  of  stone,  proving  beyond  all  doubt  that  the 
superstructure  had  been  erected  over  them.  The  Kerghis  assured 
me  that  these  were  built  by  the  people  who  inhabited  the  country 
before  the  Kalmucks.  The  third  kind,  which  they  say  were  built 
by  Timour  Khan  and  his  race,  are  of  sun-burnt  bricks,  and  in  de- 
sign possess  a  Mohammedan  character ;  even  now  some  of  these 
are  in  excellent  preservation."* 

Marco  Polo  says:  "It  has  been  the  invariable  custom,  that  all 
the  Grand  Khans  and  chiefs  of  the  race  of  Ghengis  Khan  should 
be  carried  for  interment  to  certain  lofty  mountains  name  Altai, 
and  in  whatever  place  they  may  happen  to  die,  although  it  should 
be  at  the  distance  of  a  hundred  days'  journey,  they  are  neverthe- 
less conveyed  thither.  It  is  likewise  the  custom,  during  the 
progress  of  removing  the  bodies  of  these  princes,  for  those  who 
form  the  escort  to  sacrifice  such  persons  as  they  chance  to  meet  on 
the  road,  saying  to  them,  '  Depart  for  the  next  world,  and  there 
attend  upon  your  deceased  master,'  being  impressed  with  the 
belief  that  all  whom  they  thus  slay  do  actually  become  his  ser- 
vants in  the  next  life.  They  do  the  same  also  in  respect  to  horses, 
killing  the  best  of  the  stud,  in  order  that  he  may  have  the  use  of 
them.  When  the  corps  of  Mangu  was  transported  to  this  moun- 
tain, the  horsemen  who  accompanied  it,  having  this  blind  and 
horrible  persuasion,  slew  upwards  of  twenty  thousand  persons 
who  fell  in  their  way." 

The  Chinese  annals  are  not  without  instances  of  the  practice  of 
immolation  at  funerals.  As  late  as  the  year  1661  the  Tartar  Em- 
peror Shun-chi  commanded  a  human  sacrifice  upon  the  death  of 
his  favorite  mistress. 

In  the  account  of  the  conquest  of  China  by  the  Mantchou  Tar- 
tars we  are  told  that  the  Mantchou  king,  Tien-ming,  invading 
China  to  avenge  the  murder  of  his  father,  swore  that — in  allusion 
to  the  customs  of  the  Tartars — he  would  celebrate  the  funeral  of 
the  murdered  king  by  the  slaughter  of  two  hundred  thousand 
Chinese.f 

The  vast  plain  of  Central  Asia  is  more  than  two  thousand 
miles  in  length  and  one  thousand  two  hundred  in  breadth,  and 
over  this  space  are  scattered  at  intervals  tumuli,  some  of  which 
are  held  in  great  veneration  by  the  Kerghis.  Atkinson  traversed 

*  "  Exploration  and  Adventures  in  Siberia,"  Thomas  Witlam  Atkinson,  1865. 
t  Note  to  Marsden's  "Marco  Polo." 


42      .  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VI. 

a  great  part  of  this  vast  desert,  and  in  his  "  Journey  to  the 
Amoor  "  he  says : 

"  The  river  Ayagus,  for  a  short  distance,  led  us  among  low  hills. 
In  this  direction  (southerly)  Ayagus  seemed  to  stand  on  the  verge 
of  a  desert  that  could  not  afford  a  mouthful  of  food  to  man  or 
beast.  Having  ridden  more  than  three  hours  over  these  barren 
hills,  we  reached  a  plain  covered  with  good  pastures.  We  con- 
tinued our  ride  over  the  plain  through  great  herds  of  cattle,  and 
in  little  more  than  two  hours  reached  our  destination. 

"  The  next  morning,  after  riding  about  an  hour,  we  reached  the 
summit  of  a  hill  whence  the  vast  Asiatic  plain  lay  stretched  out 
around  me,  extending  more  than  two  thousand  miles  in  length, 
from  the  Caspian  on  the  west  to  the  Bartuck  Mountains  on  the  east. 
Its  breadth  is  about  one  thousand  two  hundred  miles'  and  over  this 
enormous  space  the  nomadic  tribes  wander  with  their  flocks  and 
herds.  At  some  ten  miles  distance  was  a  broad  track  of  country 
covered  with  a  substance  of  dazzling  whiteness.  Beyond  was  a 
lake  some  twenty-five  or  thirty  miles  in  length  and  about  fifteen 
miles  in  breadth,  the  shore  quite  flat,  with  a  belt  of  reeds  about 
two  miles  in  width  extending  around  it.  To  the  east  end,  at  a 
great  distance,  the  purple  peaks  of  the  Tarbagatai  were  visible, 
but  on  the  whole  space  within  the  range  of  vision  not  a  single 
abode  for  man  could  be  seen. 

"  From  this  spot  we  proceeded  toward  the  southeast,  and  a  ride 
of  three  hours  carried  us  across  a  broad  valley  and  to  the  eastern 
end  of  another  ridge.  There  are  several  ancient  tombs  which  are 
held  in  great  veneration  by  the  Kirghis.  Two  of  these  tombs  are 
alike,  both  in  form  and  dimensions.  They  are  circular  in  the 
plan  and  conical,  or,  more  properly,  an  elongated  dome,  with  an 
aperture  on  the  top.  From  the  ground  to  the  apex  of  the  dome 
the  height  is  about  fifty-five  feet ;  on  the  south  side,  and  about 
eight  feet  from  the  ground,  there  is  an  opening  about  four  feet 
square,  and  higher  up  in  the  dome  there  is  another  about  two  feet 
square.  The  interior  diameter  is  twenty-one  feet.  The  walls  are 
four  feet  thick,  and  built  of  stone.  In  the  centre  of  the  tomb  are 
two  graves  nine  feet  long  and  three  feet  six  inches  wide,  and  on 
each  side  of  these  are  three  other  graves  six  feet  long.  Around  this 
spot  are  several  smaller  tombs  and  numerous  mounds  of  earth." 
These  tombs  are  so  much  like  a  particular  one  previouly  described, 
having  the  same  form  and  almost  the  same  size,  and  built  of 
the  same  material,  that  probably  they  are  identical;  if  so,  the 
two  descriptions  help  to  give  a  better  idea  of  them.  "Almost 
immediately  after  leaving  the  tombs  we  got  into  a  morass,  which 


CHAP.  VI.]  OF    AMERICA.  43 

was  probably  the  bed  of  a  shallow  lake  from  which  the  water  had 
evaporated,  leaving  incrustations  of  salt  on  the  grass  and  mud. 
Not  far  from  this  place  we  reached  a  part  of  the  steppe  covered 
with  efflorescent  salt,  which  is  exceedingly  bitter.  Although  we 
proceeded  at  a  rapid  pace,  we  were  more  than  two  hours  in  crossing 
this  crystallized  spot.  We  then  entered  on  a  sterile  steppe  covered 
with  sand  and  pebbles. 

"  We  were  now  on  a  level  plain,  but  no  pastures  could  be  seen. 
Hour  after  hour  passed  with  the  same  monotony  around  us. 
We  had  been  nine  hours  on  horseback.  Having  gone  a  few  miles, 
the  horses  scented  the  pastures.  In  something  more  than  an  hour 
we  perceived  that  the  green  was  a  belt  of  reeds  extending  for 
many  miles.  We  tried  to  cross  the  swamp,  but  found  this  im- 
possible, as  the  reeds  were  ten  feet  high  and  so  thick  that  the 
horses  could  not  force  a  passage.  On  reaching  the  southern  end 
of  the  reedy  border  we  perceived  a  Kirghis,  whom  we  desired  to 
lead  us  to  the  aoul.  He  complied,  and  in  about  half  an  hour  we 
were  greeted  by  the  barking  of  dogs  as  we  rode  up  to  the  aoul. 
Night,  however,  had  set  in,  and  nothing  could  be  seen  but  a  few 
yourts  around  us.  These  were  located  in  the  pastures  of  a  nu- 
merous tribe  occupying  a  region  to  the  west  of  the  Ala-kool.  The 
aoul  of  the  chief  was  at  the  distance  of  a  five  hours'  ride  to  the 
eastward. 

"  The  next  point  of  interest  to  me  was  the  region  of  Karatau, 
which  bounds  the  Kirghis  steppe  to  the  south.  Here  were  the 
pastures  of  the  Great  Horde,  and  in  one  of  the  valleys  Russia  was 
just  commencing  a  fort.  A  ride  of  ten  days  after  leaving  Ayagus 
brought  me  to  the  river  Bean,  the  boundary  between  the  pastures 
of  the  Great  and  Middle  Hordes.  Arid  steppes  were  frequently 
crossed ;  the  only  patches  of  green  were  the  salsola  bordering  the 
numerous  salt  lakes.  On  approaching  the  mountains  the  country 
becomes  more  fertile,  and  affords  good  pasture  for  vast  herds  of 
cattle.  Wherever  there  is  moisture,  grass  is  abundant. 

"  The  ancient  inhabitants  of  this  region  rendered  it  extremely 
productive.  The  numerous  canals  that  still  exist  show  their  en- 
gineering skill  and  the  extent  of  the  irrigation  it  produced.  In 
some  of  the  channels  the  water  yet  runs,  and  where  it  'overflows, 
the  sterile  soil  is  covered  with  a  luxuriant  carpet  of  vegetation. 
There  is  abundant  proof  that  it  has  once  been  densely  inhabited. 
The  vast  number  of  tumuli  scattered  over  the  plain,  the  extensive 
earthworks,  which  have  been  either  cities  or  strongholds,  afford 
convincing  evidence  that  a  great  people  were  once  located  here. 

"  One  of  their  ancient  works  on  the  Lepsou,  near  its  outlet  from 


44  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  CHAp.  VI. 


the  Karatau,  is  a  parallelogram  about  seven  hundred  yards  in 
length  and  three  hundred  in  breadth.  The  earth-walls  are  now 
about  twelve  feet  high,  and  have  been  considerably  higher  ;  their 
thickness  is  about  sixteen  feet  at  the  bottom  and  nine  feet  at  the  top. 
This  enclosure  was  entered  by  four  gates,  one  being  in  the  centre 
of  each  side  ;  but  the  eastern  end  has  been  partly  destroyed  by 
the  river,  which  is  gradually  cutting  down  the  bank.  Half  a  mile 
to  the  north  and  south  are  numerous  mounds,  and  about  a  mile 
from  the  western  end  there  is  a  large  tumulus,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  in  diameter  and  fifty  feet  high.  The  people  who 
produced  them  were  a  very  different  race  from  the  present  occu- 
pants of  the  country,  and  had  made  an  extraordinary  advance  in 
agriculture  and  mining.  In  one  of  the  small  mountain-ridges  on 
my  route  I  found  a  fine  specimen  of  malachite,  and  came  upon 
the  remains  of  ancient  mines,  most  probably  worked  at  a  period 
long  before  those  of  Siberia  were  discovered  by  the  Chutes,  who 
left  many  of  their  flint  instruments  in  the  depths  of  the  Altai. 

"As  we  approached  the  Karatau  from  the  northeast,  the  moun- 
tains were  seen  rising  abruptly  from  the  plain  —  some  to  the  height 
of  nearly  seven  thousand  feet.  After  a  long  day  on  horseback  we 
were  glad  to  rest  in  the  aoul  of  some  herdsmen  belonging  to  a 
chief,  who  gave  us  a  welcome  reception. 

"  In  the  morning  I  discovered  that  the  habitation  was  about  ten 
miles  from  the  foot  of  Karatau,  near  its  western  end,  where  it  de- 
scends on  to  the  great  plain,  along  which  it  runs,  in  low  hills,  to 
a  considerable  distance.  Here  I  obtained  horses  and  men  to  take 
me  over  the  mountains  into  the  valley  lying  between  the  Karatau 
and  the  Alatau.  At  length  we  reached  a  round  hill  near  the 
middle  of  the  valley,  from  which  we  had  a  splendid  view,  looking 
to  the  eastward.  On  the  north  was  the  Karatau,  on  the  south 
the  Alatau.  Many  of  the  highest  crests  rise  far  into  the  region 
of  eternal  snow.  Looking  along  this  chain,  the  snowy  peaks  ap- 
peared to  vanish  in  endless  perspective,  till  the  eye  rested  upon  a 
stupendous  mountain  mass  near  the  sources  of  the  Acsou  and 
Sarcand. 

"Having  examined  the  country,  I  hastened  forward,  passing  sev- 
eral large  tumuli  [5],  while  many  more  were  scattered  over  the 
valley.  Just  at  dark  we  reached  a  group  of  yourts,  to  the  great 
astonishment  of  the  Cossack  inhabitants.  Their  officers,  however, 
received  me  kindly  and  gave  me  a  hospitable  welcome.  I  had  now 
reached  Kopal,  the  most  southerly  fort  Russia  has  planted  in 
Chinese  Tartary  [6].  This  military  post  is  situated  about  43°  lat. 
N.  and  82°  long.  E.,  and  is  only  three  days'  journey  from  Kulja, 


A  GREAT  TUMULUS  NEAR  KOPAL. 


KOPAL  AND  TUMULI. 


CHAP.  VI.]  OF    AMERICA.  45 

a  large  Chinese  town  containing  about  forty  thousand  inhabitants. 
The  fort  is  in  the  region  belonging  to  the  Great  Horde  of  Kirghis, 
and  is  significant  of  the  fate  which  awaits  these  warlike  tribes. 

"Four  years  before  my  arrival  a  battery  of  artillery,  consisting  of 
six  guns  and  one  hundred  men,  had  been  sent  into  the  Alatau,  and 
the  officer  in  command  had  taken  up  a  position  in  a  pass  about  eight 
miles  to  the  southward  of  the  site  of  the  new  fort.  From  Ayagus 
to  their  camp  is  a  journey  of  eighteen  days.  The  fort  is  placed 
on  a  rising  ground  about  four  hundred  yards  to  the  east  of  the 
river  Kopal,  which  flows  through  the  valley  between  the  Alatau 
and  Karatau.  A  vast  number  of  tumuli  are  scattered  over  the 
plain,  and  some  are  of  large  dimensions,  proving  that  the  region 
has  once  been  densely  populated,  or  else  it  has  been  a  vast  ceme- 
tery, in  which,  apparently,  a  nation  has  been  interred. 

"  Having  obtained  valuable  information  from  my  friends,  I  deter- 
mined to  cross  the  Alatau  and  visit  the  upper  valleys  of  the 
Actau.  Leaving  our  friends  at  the  fort,  we  rode  to  the  gorge  where 
the  artillery  had  encamped.  Our  way  was  up  the  ravine  for 
nearly  two  miles,  and  then  we  ascended  to  the  mountain-slope. 
In  about  two  hours  we  reached  a  deep,  rocky,  well- wooded  glen, 
running  nearly  east  and  west,  that  we  had  to  cross.  On  emerging 
from  the  ravine  our  course  was  directly  south  and  up  toward  a 
ridge.  An  hour's  ride  brought  us  to  the  summit.  Beyond  were 
seen  the  white  summits  of  the  Actau.  We  lost  no  time  in  cross- 
ing to  some  lofty  crags,  near  the  base  of  which  a  great  gap  was 
formed  in  the  ridge.  On  reaching  this  we  passed  round  the  base 
of  the  peaks,  and  saw  the  deep,  narrow  valley  of  the  Kora  lying 
beneath.  As  we  looked  down  into  the  depth,  probably  five 
thousand  feet  below  us,  the  river  appeared  like  a  band  of  frosted 
silver. 

"I  arrived  at  a  part  of  the  valley  where  the  Kora  makes  a  bend 
towards  the  cliffs  on  the  north,  leaving  a  space  of  about  two  hun- 
dred yards  in  width  between  the  base  of  the  rocks  and  the  river. 
As  I  approached  this  spot,  I  was  almost  inclined  to  believe  that 
the  works  of  the  giants  were  before  me,  for  five  enormous  stones 
were  standing  isolated  and  on  end,  the  first  sight  of  which  gave 
me  the  idea  that  their  disposition  was  not  accidental,  and  that  a 
master-mind  had  superintended  their  erection,  the  group  being  in 
perfect  keeping  with  the  scene  around.  The  height  of  one  of 
these  blocks  above  the  ground  was  seventy-six  feet,  and  it 
measured  twenty-four  feet  on  one  side  and  nineteen  feet  on  the 
other.  It  stood  seventy-three  paces  from  the  base  of  the  cliffs, 
and  was  about  eight  feet  out  of  the  perpendicular,  inclining 


46  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VI. 

toward  the  river.  The  remaining  four  blocks  varied  from  forty- 
five  to  fifty  feet  in  height,  one  being  fifteen  feet  square,  and  the 
rest  somewhat  less.  Two  of  these  stood  upright;  the  others  were 
leaning  in  different  directions,  one  of  them  so  far  that  it  had 
nearly  lost  its  equilibrium. 

"  A  sixth  mass  of  still  larger  dimensions  was  lying  half-buried 
in  the  ground.  On  this  some  picta-trees  had  taken  root,  and  were 
growing  luxuriantly.  About  two  "hundred  yards  to  the  eastward 
three  other  blocks  were  lying.*  Not  far  from  there  stood  a  pile  of 
stones,  undoubtedly  the  work  of  man,  as  a  great  quantity  of  quartz 
blocks  had  been  used,  with  other  materials,  in  its  construction.  It 
was  circular,  forty-two  feet  in  diameter  and  twenty-eight  feet  high, 
shaped  like  a  dome.  A  circle  of  quartz  blocks  had  been  formed 
on  the  ground,  inclosing  a  space  ten  feet  wide  all  round  the  tomb. 
Finding  such  a  tumulus  in  this  valley  surprised  me  greatly.  It 
could  not  have  been  the  grave  of  a  chief  of  the  present  race,  but 
was  as  ancient  as  those  I  had  found  on  the  steppe." 

From  the  river  Kora  Atkinson  returned  to  Kopal.     He  says : 

"  On  leaving  Kopal  I  turned  my  steps  to  the  eastward.  A  party 
of  Cossack  officers  with  their  wives  accompanied  me  to  the  Ara- 
san,  our  first  night's  encampment.  From  the  fortress  our  way 
was  towards  Byan-ja-rouk,  a  sacred  mountain  with  the  Kirghis, 
over  which  I  had  watched  the  sun  rise  almost  daily  for  the  past 
five  months.  Though  the  steppes  had  long  been  covered  with  a 
carpet  of  grass  and  flowers,  doubts  were  entertained  of  my  being 
able  to  cross  the  Karatau  and  descend  to  the  plain  beyond.  My 
object  in  attempting  this  was  to  meet  the  tribes  and  join  them 
on  their  march  to  the  summer  pastures  in  the  high  valleys  of  the 
Alatau,  in  Chinese  Tartary. 

"  After  taking  leave  of  our  Cossack  friends  we  mounted  our 
horses  and  departed.  A  ride  of  little  more  than  an  hour's  dura- 
tion carried  us  beyond  the  region  of  tombs  and  on  to  a  part  of 
the  steppe  composed  of  bare  granite.  In  some  places  huge 

*  The  dimensions  of  these  upright  rocks  may  excite  incredulity  in  persons  of 
the  present  time,  but  in  the  walls  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  at  Balbec,  there  are 
three  masses  of  rock  almost  as  large  as  those  in  the  valley  of  the  Kora.  The 
dimensions  of  the  rocks  at  Balbec  are  :  Fifty-eight  feet  seven  inches,  fifty-eight 
feet  eleven  inches,  and  fifty-eight  feet,  each  twelve  feet  thick  ;  and  a  fourth  remains 
in  the  quarry  from  whence  the  others  were  taken.  It  is  hewn  on  three  sides  ; 
it  is  fifty-nine  feet  two  inches  long,  twelve  feet  ten  inches  broad,  and  thirteen 
feet  three  inches  thick.  Some  modern  travellers  make  these  stones  greater. 
All  these  stones  are  of  white  granite.  There  is  a  quarry  of  this  kind  of  stone 
under  the  whole  city  and  in  the  adjacent  mountain,  where  the  unmoved  block 
still  remains  "as  a  defiance  to  posterity  to  move  it." 


CHAP.  VI.]  OF    AMERICA.  47 

masses  were  thrown  up,  extending  in  a  southeast  direction  for  ten 
miles.  Beyond  was  a  grassy  plain  running  up  to  the  foot  of  the 
north  side  of  Byan-ja-rouk,  and  in  the  distance  were  several  groups 
of  ancient  tombs — the  burial-place  of  a  race  of  whom  the  Kerghis 
have  no  tradition.  Not  far  from  one  of  these,  smoke  rising  indi- 
cated the  place  of  our  encampment,  and  a  sharp  gallop  of  about 
eight  miles  brought  us  to  it.  We  were  now  at  "Arasan,"  a  hot 
mineral  spring  having  a  temperature  of  29°  Reaumer,  both  in 
winter  and  summer.  A  large  bath  has  been  formed  of  rough 
stone  walls,  twenty-three  feet  long,  eight  feet  wide,  and  four  feet 
six  inches  deep,  and  the  spring  is  very  strong,  giving  a  column  of 
water  three  inches  in  diameter.  It  has  been  resorted  to  for  many 
centuries  by  Kalmucks,  Tartars,  Chinese  and  Kirghis. 

"  When  I  looked  out  in  the  morning  the  sun  was  throwing  his 
rays  over  Byan-ja-rouk.  After  the  morning  repast  my  friends, 
except  three,  returned  to  their  homes.  The  officer  of  artillery, 
with  two  of  his  men,  rode  with  me  to  the  pass  in  the  Karatau, 
where  we  dined,  and  then  separated. 

"  A  ride  of  half  an  hour  brought  us  into  the  rugged  ravine,  with 
its  walls  in  some  places  rising  one  thousand  feet  above  us  ;  in  other 
parts  it  opened  into  an  amphitheatre.  We  were  three  hours  rid- 
ing from  this  place  to  the  top  of  the  pass,  whence  we  had  a  view 
over  the  steppe,  that  stretched  out  like  a  sea  beneath  us.  In  one 
direction  smoke  was  seen,  although  at  a  great  distance.  We  were 
now  about  five  thousand  feet  above  the  steppe,  and  to  the  east 
mountains  rose  abruptly  two  thousand  feet  higher.  The  descent 
occupied  four  hours.  After  leaving  the  gorge  and  reaching  the 
crest  of  a  low  hill  we  beheld  a  few  miles  to  the  east  a  Kirghis  en- 
campment. On  reaching  it  we  learned  that  it  was  an  advanced 
party  on  their  way  to  the  Alatau,  and  that  they  had  only  just 
arrived. 

"  This  tribe  had  been  more  than  two  months  on  their  march  from 
the  shores  of  the  Balkash,  the  winter  resort  of  all  the  Kirghis  of 
this  region.  Theirs  is  a  life  of  constant  migration  between  the 
higher  valleys  of  the  Alatau  and  the  steppe  around  the  Balkash. 

"  At  daybreak  the  following  morning  we  left  the  aoul.  After 
riding  about  two  hours  we  came  upon  a  great  number  of  ancient 
tombs,  many  only  small  mounds  of  earth,  varying  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  feet  in  diameter  and  ten  feet  high.  These  were  scattered 
far  over  the  plain.  About  a  mile  farther  I  found  others  of  much 
larger  dimensions,  one  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in  diameter 
and  thirty-seven  feet  high,  with  a  shallow  ditch  twelve  feet  wide 
and  four  feet  deep  running  round  its  base.  One  hundred  feet  from 


48  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VII. 

the  edge  of  the  ditch  was  a  circle  of  stones  two  feet  high,  and  ten 
feet  from  this  was  another  of  the  same  height.  Directly  facing 
the  east  was  an  entrance  twelve  feet  wide,  having  an  avenue  of  the 
same  width,  formed  of  similar  stones,  extending  eastward  one 
hundred  yards. 

"  Having  ridden  my  horse  to  the  summit  of  the  tumulus,  I  saw 
three  others  to  the  north,  apparently  of  the  same  dimensions. 
One  of  them  was  about  a  mile  distant,  another  about  two  miles, 
and  the  third  still  farther  in  a  northwesterly  direction.  To  the 
south  I  observed  a  still  larger  tumulus  not  far  away.  The  whole 
intervening  space  was  covered  with  smaller  mounds  extending 
over  an  area  nearly  four  miles  in  length  by  one  mile  in  breadth. 

"Here  was  a  place  for  reflection,  and  for  much  curious  specula- 
tion as  to  what  nation  or  race  occupied  these  numberless  mounds. 
They  have  passed  away  without  leaving  a  single  record,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  identify  them  or.  date  their  cemeteries.  Most  proba- 
bly they  were  raised  by  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  these  vast  re- 
gions, which,  we  are  led  to  believe,  was  the  cradle  of  the  human 
race." 


CHAPTER   VII. 

• 

The  Tumuli  of  Europe — Human  Sacrifices — The  Burial  Laws  of  Odin — The 
Irish  Tumuli — The  Tumulus  at  New  Grange — The  Tumulus  of  Thyre  Dane- 
bod— The  Skip's  Plunger,  or  Ship's  Tumulus — The  Buried  Ship  of  Gokstad, 
Norway — Tumuli  of  Britain — The  Ages  of  Celtic  Tumuli — Tumuli  of  Can- 
terbury, of  Cracow,  Poland — The  Tumulus  of  Kosiusko. 

HAVING  mentioned  many  mounds  in  Asia  where,  in  several 
countries,  they  are  termed  Tepe,  I  will  now  describe  some  of  those 
of  Western  Europe  which,  in  several  respects,  much  resemble 
those  already  mentioned,  and  are  there  called  barrows  and  cairns. 
The  similarity  of  the  ancient  funeral  rites  of  the  early  inhabitants 
of  Asia  and  Europe,  and  the  similarity  of  the  contents  of  the 
tumuli  of  each  of  these  continents,  appear  to  indicate  that  the 
founders  of  these  monuments  were  actuated  by  a  similar  faith  and 
motive  in  their  erection. 

The  barbarous  custom  of  sacrificing  human  beings  to  their  dei- 
ties, and  to  the  manes  of  distinguished  warriors,  which  character- 
ized the  inhabitants  of  remote  antiquity,  appears  to  have  descended 
to  the  time  of  the  Trojan  war.  The  custom  of  interring  with  the 
dead  their  arms,  their  jewelry,  and  sometimes  their  horses  and  ser- 


CHAP.   VII.]  OF    AMERICA.  49 

vants,  is  traced  to  the  mythology  of  the  Northern  Asiatic  nations, 
which  taught  them  to  believe  that  they  should  make  an  appear- 
ance in  another  world  corresponding  to  the  ornaments  and  attend- 
ants deposited  in  their  tomb,  and  this  superstition  has  descended 
through  many  ages. 

There  are  barrows  which  include  a  chamber  or  chambers  where 
the  tenant  was  surrounded  with  all  the  prized  provisions  of  his 
previous  life.  Sometimes,  instead  of  a  chamber  formed  above 
ground,  the  barrow  covered  a  pit  excavated  under  the  original  sur- 
face, in  which  the  interments  had  been  made. 

It  was  a  law  of  Odin  that  large  barrows  should  be  raised  to  per- 
petuate the  memory  of  celebrated  chiefs ;  these  are  composed  of 
stone  and  earth,  and  are  formed  with  great  labor  and  some  art. 

In  the  fiery  age,  which  was  the  first  among  the  Northerns,  the 
body  was  ordered  by  Odin  to  be  burnt  with  its  ornaments,  and  the 
ashes  to  be  collected  in  an  urn  and  laid  in  a  grave.  In  the  age  of 
hillocks,  being  the  second,  the  body,  untouched  by  fire,  was  de- 
posited in  a  cave  or  sepulchre  under  a  barrow,  and  this  mode  was 
practiced  until  the  age  of  Christianity. 

In  Ireland,  barrows  are  very  numerous ;  the  round  barrow  or 
chambered  cairn  prevailed  from  the  earliest  pagan  period  till  the 
introduction  of  Christianity.  The  Irish  barrows  appear  in  groups 
in  certain  localities  which  seem  to  have  been  the  royal  cemeteries 
of  the  tribal  confederacies,  whereof  eight  are  enumerated  in  an 
ancient  Celtic  manuscript  on  Pagan  Cemeteries.  The  best  known 
of  these  is  the  burial-place  of  the  kings  of  Tara.  It  is  on  the 
banks  of  the  Boyne,  above  Drogheda,  and  consists  of  a  group  of 
the  largest  cairns  in  Ireland.  At  New  Grange,  in  the  county  of 
Meath,  is  a  mound,  the  altitude  of  which,  from  the  horizontal  floor 
of  the  cave,  is  about  seventy  feet,  the  circumference  at  the  top  is 
three  hundred  feet,  and  the  base  covers  two  acres  of  land.  It  is 
founded  on  an  astonishing  collection  of  stones,  and  covered  with 
gravel  and  earth.  Around  its  base  are  the  remains  of  a  circle  of 
large  standing  stones.  About  the  year  1699  Mr.  Campbell,  who 
resided  in  the  village  of  New  Grange,  observing  stones  under  the 
sod,  carried  many  of  them  away,  and  at  length  arrived  at  a  broad, 
flat  stone  that  covered  the  mouth  of  the  gallery.  At  the  entrance, 
this  gallery  is  three  feet  wide  and  two  feet  high ;  at  thirteen  feet 
from  the  entrance  it  is  but  two  feet  two  inches  wide ;  the  length 
of  the  gallery,  from  its  mouth  to  the  beginning  of  the  dome,  is 
sixty-two  feet;  from  thence  to  the  upper  part  of  the  dome,  eleven 
feet  six  inches ;  the  whole  length  being  seventy-three  feet  and  a  half. 
The  dome  or  cave  with  the  long  gallery  exhibits  the  exact  figure 

4 


50  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VII. 

of  a  cross,  the  length  between  the  arms  of  which  is  twenty  feet. 
The  dome  forms  an  octagon  twenty  feet  high,  with  an  area  of  about 
seventeen  feet.  It  is  composed  of  long  flat  stones,  the  upper  pro- 
jecting a  little  over  the  lower,  and  closed  in  and  capped  with  a 
flat  flag.  There  are  two  large  oval  rock-basins  in  this  cave,  one  in 
each  arm  of  the  cross  ;  from  which,  and  the  cruciform  shape  of  the 
structure,  it  is  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  semi-Christian  Ostmen 
in  the  ninth  century.  General  Vallance,  however,  and  other  anti- 
quarians, consider  this  cave  at  New  Grange  to  have  been  "  antrum 
Mithras,"  or  a  cave  for  the  worship  of  the  Sun,  introduced  by  the 
Perso- Scythian  colony  which  they  suppose  to  have  come  to  Ire- 
land from  Spain,  and  to  have  established  the  customs  of  the  eastern 
nations.  The  mode  of  burial  and  the  species  of  sepulchral  monu- 
ment at  New  Grange  may  be  traced  through  Denmark,  Sweden, 
Russia,  Poland  and  the  steppes  of  Tartary.* 

Sometimes  chambers  are  found  formed  of  wood  instead  of  stones. 
One  of  the  latest  examples  of  the  great  timbered  chamber  barrows 
is  that  of  Jellenge,  in  Jutland,  known  as  the  barrow  of  Thyre 
Danebod,  queen  of  King  Gorm  the  Old,  who  died  about  the  middle 
of  the  tenth  century.  It  is  a  mound  about  two  hundred  feet  in  di- 
ameter and  over  fifty  feet  in  height,  containing  a  chamber  twenty- 
three  feet  in  length,  eight  feet  wide,  and  five  feet  high,  formed  of 
massive  slabs  of  oak.  King  Harold,  son  and  successor  of  Gorm 
the  Old,  followed  the  pagan  custom  by  erecting  a  chambered  tumu- 
lus over  the  remains  of  his  father,  on  the  summit  of  which  was 
placed  a  rude  stone  pillar  bearing  on  one  side  the  memorial  in- 
scription in  Runes.  The  king's  "  hows  "  at  Upsal,  in  Sweden,  rival 
those  of  Jelling  in  size  and  height.  In  the  chamber  of  one  of 
them,  which  was  opened  in  1829,  was  found  an  urn  full  of  calcined 
bones,  and  along  with  them  some  ornaments  of  gold,  showing  the 
workmanship  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
Along  with  the  calcined  human  bones  were  bones  of  animals, 
those  of  horses  and  dogs  being  distinguished. 

"A  remarkable  form  of  tumulus  frequent  in  Sweden,  and  occa- 
sionally seen  in  Scotland,  consists  of  an  oblong  mound,  larger  than 
the  primitive  barrow,  and  terminated  at  both  ends  in  a  point, 
whence  it  had  been  called  skip  sdunger,  or  ship  barrow.  Scandi- 
navian antiquarians  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  bodies 
of  the  warriors  of  the  sea  were  sometimes  buried  in  their  ships, 
whose  form  was  represented  in  the  earthwork  raised  over  their 
ashes.  This  opinion  has  since  been  verified  by  the  discovery  of  a 
Viking  vessel  thus  entombed. 

*  Governor  Powell  in  the  "  Archseologia. " 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF    AMERICA.  51 

"The  earliest  information  about  ancient  boat-building  in  Norway 
is  derived  from  the  rude  gravings  in  stone,  called  "  helleristninger," 
which  are  supposed  to  have  been  executed  during  the  period  be- 
tween the  birth  of  Christ  and  about  a  thousand  years  previously. 
In  the  old  historic  times,  from  about  the  eighth  to  the  eleventh 
century  after  Christ,  it  is  known,  from  ancient  manuscripts,  that  a 
custom  prevailed  among  Norsemen,  throughout  the  later  centuries 
of  paganism  in  Scandinavia,  of  burying  the  remains  of  men  of 
note  with  their  ships.  This  mode  of  burial  has  proven  of  singular 
importance,  as  since,  in  excavating  some  of  these  mounds,  ships 
from  that  remote  period  have  been  brought  to  light  in  a  more  or 
less  perfect  state  of  preservation,  but  nevertheless  of  the  greatest 
interest  and  the  highest  value.  Divers  ship-tombs  have  been  dis- 
covered, and  the  vessels  found  very  considerable  in  size,  ranging 
from  boats  to  sea-going  ships.  In  most  cases  the  vessel  appeared 
to  have  been  hauled  ashore,  placed  on  an  even  keel,  and  the  re- 
mains of  the  dead  deposited  in  it,  together  with  such  articles  as 
were  to  accompany  the  departed  for  his  use  in  the  next  world, 
after  which  a  mound  of  earth  or  stone  was  thrown  up  over  the 
grave.  Vessels  of  a  smaller  dimension  have  been  found  upturned 
over  the  body,  and  in  other  cases  the  ship  and  all  appeared  to 
have  been  burnt  before  the  interment.  Of  the  mounds  excavated 
up  to  the  present  time  it  has  been  very  exceptional  when  they 
consisted  of  a  substance  in  which  wood  could  be  preserved  for  cen- 
turies ;  and  very  little  of  the  wood-work  was  found  remaining, 
often,  indeed,  not  more  than  enough  to  ascertain  the  size  of  the 
vessel.  The  only  exceptions  met  with  yet  are  two  ship-tombs 
found  in  the  south  of  Norway,  where  the  interment  had  taken 
place  in  blue  clay,  which  is  well  known  for  its  excellent  qualities 
as  a  preservative  of  wood.*  One  of  the  ship-tombs  was  discovered 
in  1867  in  a  barrow  on  the  farmstead  Haugen,  in  the  parish  of 
Tune,  close  to  the  river  Glommen,  near  the  Christiania  fiord.  The 
tomb  contained  a  vessel  with  a  keel  over  forty  feet  long.  Unfortu- 
nately the  upper  part  of  the  ship  had  gone  entirely,  owing  to  the 

*  Five  miles  north  of  Natchez,  in  the  State  of  Mississippi,  are  a  number  of 
dry  bayous — deep  cavities  in  the  earth  caused  by  the  water  flowing  down  the 
valleys.  The  caving  first  begins  where  the  water  enters  a  creek  through  culti- 
vated land,  and  then  is  continued  to  the  head  of  the  valley,  when  the  caving 
ceases,  as  there  is  no  longer  sufficient  water  to  cause  it.  Some  of  these  bayous 
are  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet  in  depth,  and  at  their  bottom  is  a  blue  clay.  The 
caving  sometimes  discloses  the  remains  of  mastodons,  which,  falling  into  this 
blue  clay,  are  covered  and  colored  by  it,  and  thus  preserved.  There  is  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  earth  at  or  near  Detroit,  in  the  State  of  Michigan,  a  similar 
clay. 


52  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VII. 

blue  clay  covering  only  the  bottom.  Far  more  important  was 
the  discovery  of  the  ship  of  which  a  copy  was  built  and  lately  ex- 
hibited at  the  World's  Fair  at  Chicago.  It  was  found  in  1880,  at 
Gokstad,  near  a  small  watering-place  called  Sande  fiord,  situated 
on  the  western  side  of  Christiania  fiord,  in  a  mound  where,  accord- 
ing to  tradition,  a  king  was  buried  with  all  his  treasure.  The  ship 
was  found  to  be  in  excellent  preservation,  and  it  was  safely  got  out 
by  the  aid  of  the  Antiquarian  Society  in  Christiania,  and  after- 
wards acquired  by  the  Christiania  University,  where  it  now  lies 
for  view  as  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of  antique  curiosity  in  the 
world.  Here  at  last  the  actual  character  of  vessels  belonging  to 
the  Viking  period  was  brought  to  light,  and  though  there  may  still 
be  found  in  Norway  some  mounds  near  the  coast  containing  ships, 
it  is  certain  there  will  not  be  found  any  vessel  which,  in  respect  to 
model  and  workmanship,  can  outrival  the  Gokstad  ship.  This  ship 
measured  sixty-six  feet  in  length  on  the  keel,  and  from  outside  to 
outside,  between  fore  and  aft,  seventy-eight  feet;  amidship  it  is 
sixteen  and  one-half  feet  broad,  and  at  the  same  point  four  feet  in 
depth  from  top  of  bulwark  to  keel."* 

In  England  the  long  barrow  usually  contains  a  single  chamber, 
entered  by  a  passage  under  the  higher  and  wider  end  of  the 
mound.  In  Denmark  the  chambers  are  at  irregular  intervals  along 
the  body  of  the  mound,  and  have  no  passages  leading  into  them. 
The  long  barrows  of  Great  Britain  are  often  from  two  hundred  to 
four  hundred  feet  in  length,  by  sixty  to  eighty  feet  in  width.  The 
chambers  are  rudely  but  strongly  built,  with  dome-shaped  roofs, 
formed  by  overlapping  the  successive  courses  of  the  upper  part  of 
the  side-walls.  In  Scandinavia,  on  the  other  hand,  such  dome-roofed 
chambers  are  unknown,  and  the  construction  of  the  chambers,  as 
a  rule,  is  megalithic,  five  or  six  monoliths  supporting  a  capstone 
of  enormous  size.  Such  chambers,  denuded  of  the  covering  mound, 
or  over  which  no  covering  mound  has  been  raised,  are  popularly 
known  in  England  as  "  cromlechs,"  and  in  France  as  "dolmens." 

Barrows  are  numerous  in  the  counties  of  Wiltshire  and  Dorset- 
shire, in  England.  They  are  also  found  in  other  counties.  Corn- 
wall county  was  the  Cassiterides  or  Tin  Islands  of  the  Phcenecians 
and  Greeks.  It  was  inhabited  previous  to  the  Roman  conquest  by 
the  Carnubii,  the  Cimbri  and  the  Damnoni.  The  language  of  its 
ancient  people  was  a  variety  of  the  Celtic,  akin  to  the  Welsh,  the 
Gaelic  and  the  Breton.  Ancient  British  antiquities  of  great  va- 
riety, some  of  them  Druidical,  and  many  highly  interesting,  are 

*  "Viking,"  by  Alfred  A.  Holm. 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF    AMERICA.  53 

very  numerous  in  this  county.  Among  them  are  a  great  many 
barrows  or  conical  hillocks.  The  height  and  dimensions  of  these 
barrows  are  various,  from  four  to  thirty  feet  high,  and  from  fifteen 
to  one  hundred  and  thirty  broad  ;  but  they  always  bear  a  regular 
proportion  in  their  form.  Some  have  a  fossa  or  ditch  around  their 
circumference,  others  none ;  some  a  small  circle  of  stones  at  the 
top,  others  none  ;  some  a  circle  of  stones  around  the  extreme  edge 
of  their  base. 

Dr.  Stephen  Williams  saw  four  of  them  opened  by  six  tinners, 
who  were  employed  on  purpose  by  himself  and  another  gentleman. 
He  says,  after  they  had  opened  three  of  the  number,  "  Though 
we  had  hitherto  found  no  urn,  yet,  being  persuaded  by  the  unc- 
tuous black  earth,  the  cylindrical  pits  in  the  centre  of  every  one  of 
the  barrows,  the  artful  position  of  the  stones  to  cover  and  guard 
them,  and  the  foreign  earth,  that  these  barrows  were  erected  for 
sepulchres,  we  resolved  to  proceed  farther." 

Then  he  gives  a  particular  description  of  the  opening  of  the 
fourth,  in  which  they  found  an  urn  carefully  guarded  by  a  great 
many  stones  placed  artfully  all  around  it.  "  This  urn,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  is  made  of  burnt  or  calcined  earth,  very  hard,  and  very 
black  on  the  inside  ;  it  has  four  little  ears,  or  handles ;  its  sides 
are  not  half  an  inch  thick  ;  in  it  were  seven  quarts  of  burnt  bones 
and  ashes ;  we  could  easily  distinguish  the  bones,  but  so  altered 
by  fire  as  not  to  be  known  what  part  of  the  skeleton  they  com- 
posed. The  urn  will  hold  two  gallons  and  more;  its  height  is 
thirteen  inches  and  a  half;  its  diameter  at  the  mouth,  eight ;  at  the 
middle,  eleven  ;  and  at  the  bottom,  six  and  a  half." 

In  Scotland  mounds  of  this  kind  are  called  Cairns,  a  name  by 
which  they  are  known  also  in  Ireland,  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  some- 
times, too,  in  Cornwall.  Pennant,  in  both  his  tours  to  Scotland,  has 
taken  notice  of  several  cairns.  "  In  this  country  (Banff),"  says 
he,  "  are  several  cairns  or  barrows,  the  places  of  interment  of  the 
ancient  Caledonians,  or  of  the  Danes,  for  the  method  was  com- 
mon to  both  nations." 

He  mentions  several  of  them  that  were  opened,  in  one  of  which 
was  found  a  stone  coffin  containing/  the  complete  skeleton  of  a  hu- 
man body.  In  another,  a  coffin  with  a  skeleton,  also  an  urn ;  in  a 
third,  the  same;  and  in  a  fourth,  a  large  ornamented  urn,  with 
three  lesser  ones,  quite  plain  ;  the  largest  was  thirteen  inches 
high. 

Very  numerous  are  the  barrows  in  the  neighborhood  of  Stone- 
henge.  We  may  readily  count  fifty  at  a  time  in  sight  from  the 
same  place,  easily  distinguishable.  Generally  they  are  upon  ele- 


54  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VII. 

vated  grounds.  In  some  are  found  only  urns  filled  with  bones,  in 
others  burnt  bones  without  any  sign  of  an  urn.  Most  of  them  are 
surrounded  with  ditches.* 

A  vast  number  of  barrows  of  the  Celtic  period  have  been  ex- 
plored in  England.  Excavations  have  shown  that  the  remains 
deposited  beneath  tumuli  were  sometimes  placed  on  the  level 
ground,  and  as  often  were  contained  in  a  cist.  Of  upwards  of 
twenty-five  barrows  explored  by  Mr.  Sydenham,  in  Dorsetshire, 
the  greater  part  were  raised  over  cists  excavated  in  the  chalk. 
These  were  covered  with  a  heap  of  broken  flints,  apparently  frac- 
tured for  the  purpose ;  then  succeeded  large,  unbroken  flints. 
Above  these  were  successive  layers  of  brown  and  black  mould  to 
the  thickness  of  three  feet,  the  exterior  coating  being  a  layer  of 
large  flints,  two  and  a  half  feet  in  thickness.  Among  the  flints  in 
the  inner  cairn  were  found  many  fragments  of  charcoal,  and  the 
layers  of  brown  and  black  mould  were  divided  by  a  sprinkling  of 
ashes.  On  the  floor  of  the  cist  were  two  skeletons  in  a  bent 
posture  (their  legs  drawn  up).  Also  on  the  floor  of  the  cist  was 
a  plain  interment  of  burnt  bones,  of  which  there  was  a  considerable 
heap.  In  different  places  in  this  mound  were  found  the  skeletons, 
the  number  discovered  being  nine.  There  were  also  found  several 
urns.  In  one  of  these  was  a  quantity  of  burnt  bones,  among 
which  were  a  few  beads.  A  small,  perforated  cowrie-shell  was 
likewise  found.  These  shells  are  sometimes  found  in  Anglo-Saxon 
tumuli.  All  these  articles  had  been  subject  to  the  action  of  fire. 

The  occasional  finding  of  cists,  beneath  tumuli,  entirely  empty, 
and  without  the  slightest  traces  of  interment,  has  given  rise  to 
much  speculation,  but  an  attentive  examination  of  the  floor  of 
the  cist  will  satisfy  the  explorer  that  the  remains  have  been 
entirely  decomposed.  This  decomposition  appears  to  depend 
not  so  much  upon  the  nature  of  the  soil  as  on  the  texture  of  the 
bones.  Sometimes  the  teeth,  and  occasionally  the  teeth  with  the 
alveolar  process,  are  all  that  remain. f 

The  ages  of  Celtic  turnuli  have  been  surmised  by  the  character 
of  their  contents.  Thus,  barrows  containing  no  vestiges  of  pot- 
tery have  been  assigned  to  the  earliest  period.  Those  in  which  urns 
or  implements  of  flint  or  stone  are  found  are  supposed  to  denote 
a  second  or  improved  stage  in  the  slow  march  of  civilization,  while 
the  barrows  containing  metal  weapons  and  personal  ornaments 

*  Pamphlet,  "Description  of  Stonehenge,"  quoted  in  a  note  by  Chevalier. 

f  American  archaeologists  may  profit  by  this,  and  seek  not  in,  but  beneath 
the  mounds  for  relics;  and  probably  the  bases  of  mounds  on  alluvial  soil  will  be 
found  several  feet  below  the  present  surface. 


CHAP.  VII.]  OF    AMERICA.  55 

are  given  to  a  still  later  period.  This  classification  appears  to  be 
based  on  a  rational  supposition,  yet  it  is  liable  to  some  ob- 
jections. 

A  large  barrow  about  two  miles  southeast  of  Canterbury,  Eng- 
land, was  opened  about  four  years  since  by  Mr.  Bell,  who  discovered 
in  it  five  large  urns.  "  Four  of  the  five  urns  thus  brought  to  light 
were  precisely  alike  in  form  and  size,  but  the  fifth  was  much 
larger  and  slightly  different  in  shape  and  ornaments,  the  former 
being  eighteen  inches  in  height  and  thirteen  inches  in  diameter  at 
the  broadest  part,  and  the  latter  not  less  than  twenty-five  inches  in 
height  and  twenty-two  in  diameter.  The  material  of  which  they 
were  made  was  of  the  rudest  description,  consisting  of  half-baked 
clay,  mixed  with  numerous  fragments  of  silex,  which  crumbled 
at  the  touch,  so  that  their  removal  entire  was  impossible.  The 
urns  were  all  found  with  their  mouths  downward,  filled  with 
ashes,  charcoal  and  minute  fragments  of  bones.  The  contents  of 
the  larger  urn  were  perfectly  dry,  and  portions  of  the  bones  were 
larger ;  but  those  of  the  smaller  ones  were  moist  and  of  the  con- 
sistency of  paste.  The  mouths  of  the  urns  were  closely  stopped 
with  unburnt  clay.  Not  a  vestige  of  any  weapon,  bead  or  other 
ornament  could  be  discovered.  The  soil  of  which  the  barrow  was 
formed  was  most  excellent  brick-earth,  which  appeared  perfectly 
well-tempered  and  fit  for  immediate  use  without  further  prepara- 
tion, and  contained  not  a  single  pebble  larger  than  a  bean.  The 
urns  were  standing  on  nearly  the  same  level  as  the  surrounding 
ground,  which,  on  digging  into  it,  appeared  not  to  have  been  dis- 
turbed."* 

Stephens,  the  celebrated  American  traveller,  speaks  of  his  visit 
to  Cracow  thus :  "  I  walked  on  the  old  ramparts  of  Cracow.  The 
city  was  formerly  surrounded  with  regular  fortifications,  but  its 
ancient  walls  have  been  transformed  into  boulevards,  which  com- 
mand an  extensive  view  of  all  the  surrounding  country.  On  the 
opposite  bank  of  the  Vistula  is  a  large  tumulus  of  earth  marking 
the  grave  of  Cracus,  the  founder  of  the  city.  A  little  higher  up 
is  another  mound,  reverenced  as  the  sepulchre  of  his  daughter 
Wenda.  About  a  mile  from  Cracow  are  the  ruins  of  the  palace  of 
Lobzow,  built  by  Casimir  the  Great,  for  a  long  time  the  favorite 
royal  residence,  and  identified  with  a  crowd  of  national  recollec- 
tions ;  and,  until  lately,  a  large  mound  of  earth  in  the  garden  was 
reverenced  as  the  grave  of  Esther,  a  beautiful  Jewess,  the  idol  of 
Casimir  the  Great.  But  my  heart  beat  high  as  I  turned  to  another 

*  "  Archseologie,"  vol.  xxx.     The  quotation  above  is  abridged. 


56  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

monument  in  the  environs  of  Cracow — an  immense  mound  of 
earth  standing  on  an  eminence,  visible  from  every  quarter,  tower- 
ing almost  into  a  mountain,  and  sacred  to  the  memory  of  Kos- 
ciusco.  I  saw  it  from  the  ramparts,  and  with  my  eyes  constantly 
fixed  upon  it,  descended  to  the  Vistula,  followed  its  banks  to  a 
large  convent,  and  then  turned  to  the  right  direct  for  the  mound. 
I  walked  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  and  ascended  to  a  broad  table- 
land, from  which  the  mound  rises  in  a  conical  form  from  a  base 
three  hundred  feet  in  diameter  to  a  height  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  feet. 

"  It  was  built  of  earth,  sodded,  and  was  erected  in  1819  by  the 
voluntary  labor  of  the  Polish  people.  A  circular  path  winds 
around  the  mound.  I  ascended  by  this  path  to  the  top.  It  was 
covered  with  a  thick  carpet  of  grass,  and  reminded  me  of  the  tu- 
muli of  the  Grecian  heroes  on  the  plains  of  Troy." 

Poland  abounds  in  prehistoric  remains  of  the  various  stone, 
bronze  and  iron  ages.  The  Bug  and  the  Vistula  valleys  were  natu- 
rally followed  by  the  migratory  tribes  and  traders  passing  from 
the  Euxine  to  the  Baltic.  Pagan  graves  are  very  numerous,  some 
of  vast  size,  and  certain  artificial  mounds  in  the  Vistula  basin 
dating  from  the  neolithic  period  have  a  circuit  of  five  hundred 
and  seventy  yards;* 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

Stonehenge — Avebury — The  Gaelic  Monuments  of  France — Carnac. 

STONEHENGE. 

VERY  little  now  remains  of  the  fallen  and  standing  ruins  of  the 
wonderful  work  of  Stonehenge  [7],  but  in  the  past  and  its  preced- 
ing century,  when  visited  by  eminent  archaeologists  and  architects, 
the  remains  of  its  fallen  and  standing  ruins  were  so  great  that  they 
could  form  a  very  nearly  correct  idea  of  its  construction.  It  is 
from  a  small  pamphlet,  containing  abridged  accounts  of  Stone- 
henge by  these  distinguished  persons,  that  I  have  gathered  the 
following  in  regard  to  this  remarkable  relic  of  remotest  antiquity. 

Stonehenge  is  six  miles  north  of  Salisbury,  and  two  directly 
west  of  Amesbury.  The  river  Avon  runs  southward  from  Ames- 
bury  to  Salisbury,  which  towns  are  situated  on  this  river.  Stone- 

*  Elisee  Eeclus. 


STONEHENGE. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  57 

henge  is  situated  on  one  of  the  swells  of  Salisbury  plain,  in  Wilt- 
shire county,  England.  The  plain  is  an  extensive  tract  of 
undulating  chalk  country,  between  Salisbury  and  Devizes,  about 
twenty  miles  long  from  north  to  south,  and  about  fourteen  broad. 
Stonehenge  stands  not  exactly  upon  the  summit  of  the  swell,  but 
very  nearly  so,  and  for  more  than  three-quarters  of  the  circuit  is 
approached  by  a  very  gentle  ascent,  so  that  the  soil,  which  is  chalk, 
is  perfectly  dry  and  hard,  and  water  cannot  stand  anywhere  here- 
about. 

The  idea  we  conceive  of  the  distances  of  time  when  this  kind 
of  work  was  made  cannot  be  ill-founded  if  we  consider  that  the 
oldest  accounts  of  them  we  have  in  writing  are  from  Britons.  This 
is  mentioned  in  some  manuscripts  of  Ninnius,*  before  the  Saxons 
and  Danes  came  over  to  Britain ;  and  the  oldest  Britons  speak  of 
them  only  by  tradition  far  above  all  memorial.  They  wondered 
at  Stonehenge  then,  and  went  as  far  to  seek  about  its  founders,  and 
the  intent  of  it,  as  we  now. 

"  A  building  of  such  obscure  origin  and  of  so  singular  construc- 
tion has  naturally  attracted  the  attention  of  the  learned,  and  nu- 
merous have  been  the  publications  respecting  it.  Conjectures  have 
been  equally  various,  and  each  author  has  penned  his  own.  The 
revolution  of  ages  frequently  elucidates  history,  and  brings  many 
important  facts  to  light ;  but  here  all  is  darkness  and  uncertainty. 
We  may  admire,  we  may  conjecture,  but  we  are  doomed  to  remain 
in  ignorance  and  obscurity. "f 

From  a  manuscript  of  John  Aubrey,  written  in  the  year  1665, 
it  appears  "  That  this  ancient  monument  of  Stonehenge  was  men- 
tioned by  Caxton,  in  his  '  Chronicles,'  as  the  second  wonder  in 
Britain ;  and  that  it  was  a  part  of  the  inheritance  of  the  wife  of 
Lord  Ferrers,  of  Chantly,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Laurence  Wash- 
ington, Esq.|  By  the  neighborhood  it  was  called  Stonedge,  i.e., 
stones  set  edgewise." 

*  The  most  ancient  writer  who  makes  mention  of  Stonehenge  is  St.  Ninian,  a 
Briton  of  noble  birth,  who  was  educated  at  Rome,  and  there  ordained  a  bishop. 
He  died  in  432  A.  D. 

t  Sir  E.  C.  Hoar. 

J  "The  branch  of  the  family  to  which  our  Washington  belonged  sprang  from 
Laurence  Washington,  Esquire,  of  Gray's  Inn,  for  some  time  Mayor  of  North- 
ampton. The  manor  of  Garsden,  in  Wiltshire,  was  the  residence  of  Sir  Lau- 
rence Washington,  second  son  of  the  above.  Elizabeth,  granddaughter  of  this 
Sir  Laurence,  married  Robert  Shirley,  Earl  Ferrers  and  Viscount  of  Farnworth." 
— Irving' s  "  Life  of  Washington." 

In  the  year  1741  "Admiral  Vernon  found  himself  at  the  head  of  the  most 
formidable  fleet  that  ever  had  been  seen  in  this  part  (West  Indies)  of  the  world." 


58  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Stonehenge  is  a  circular  stone  structure  three  hundred  feet  in 
circumference,  and  one  hundred  feet  from  the  ditch,  thirty  feet 
wide,  that  surrounds  it.  It  consists  of  four  parts,  separate  and 
distinct :  1st.  An  outer  circle  of  upright  stones,  on  which  horizontal 
stones,  continued  all  around,  formed  an  elevated  circle  parallel  to 
the  horizon.  2d.  An  inner  circle  of  simply  upright  stones,  parallel 
to  the  outer  circle,  and  eight  feet  three  inches  from  it.  3d.  A  hex- 
agon, fifty-two  feet  in  its  shortest  diameter  and  a  few  more  in  its 
longest,  formed  of  trilithons,  and  about  thirteen  feet  from  the  inner 
circle.  4th.  An  ellipse  of  upright  stones,  concentric  with  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  hexagon  and  three  feet  within  it. 

The  outer  circle  consisted  of  thirty  uprights  and  thirty  imposts, 
rude  stones  in  about  the  same  state  as  when  taken  from  the  quarry. 
Each  upright  had  on  its  flattened  top  two  tenons  of  the  form  of 
half  an  egg,  about  ten  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter,  and  on  the 
external  parts  of  its  top  a  ridge  or  projection.*  Each  impost  had 
two  mortises  corresponding  with  the  tenons;  one  mortise  was 
fitted  on  the  tenon  of  one  upright  and  the  other  on  the  tenon  of 
the  next  upright ;  and  thus  the  imposts,  reaching  from  pillar  to 
pillar,  and  their  extremities  resting  and  fitted  together  on  the  flat- 
tened top  of  the  pillars,  formed  the  elevated  circle  parallel  to  the 
horizon. 

The  uprights  or  pillars  of  the  outer  circle  vary  in  height,  size 
and  distance  from  each  other.  Those  northward  were  fourteen  feet 
high,  while  those  southward  were  only  thirteen,  because  the  ground 
is  higher  on  the  south  side;  and  this  was  nicely  and  accurately 
contrived  by  the  ancient  builders  of  it  to  keep  the  imposts  on 
them  to  the  same  elevation.  The  height  of  the  uprights  on  each 
side  of  the  entrance  is  a  little  more  than  thirteen  feet,  the  breadth 
of  one  seven  feet  and  of  the  other  six  feet  four  inches ;  their  thick- 
ness, three  feet  six  inches ;  the  impost  on  them  is  about  ten  feet 
long,  or  a  little  more,  two  feet  eight  inches  thick,  and  seven  feet 
broad.  The  intervals  between  the  uprights  varied.  They  were 
about  three  feet,  or  sometimes  nearly  four,  but  the  interval  at  the 

This  fleet  attacked  Carthagena  and  failed  to  capture  it.  "On  the  8th  of  May 
the  fleet  sailed  from  this  scene  of  misery  and  distress  for  the  island  of  Ja- 
maica." 

It  was  in  this  attack  on  Carthagena  that  three  hundred  sailors  and  two  hun- 
dred soldiers,  the  soldiers  commanded  by  Captains  Murray  and  Washington,  at- 
tacked and  took  the  Baredera  battery,  which  consisted  of  fifteen  twenty-four 
pounders.  The  destruction  of  this  battery  was  of  the  greatest  service  to  the 
army. — "Military  and  Naval  Memoirs,"  by  Robert  Beatison,  LL.D. 

*  This  ridge  or  projection,  with  the  tenon,  held  the  end  of  the  impost  in  its 
place,  and  prevented  it  from  sliding  to  either  side. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OP    AMERICA.  59 

entrance  was  rather  wider  than  the  rest;  this  interval  was  the 
northeast  one.  All  the  stones  of  the  outer  circle  are  a  light-colored 
sandstone. 

The  inner  circle  consisted  of  thirty  perpendicular,  rudely  pyra- 
midal-formed stones,  one  foot  and  a  half  broad,  one  foot  thick  and 
six  feet  high,  placed  at  unequal  distances  from  each  other.  These 
stones  were  of  a  very  dark  color  and  very  hard. 

The  hexagon  consisted  of  six  trilithons  at  equal  distances  from 
each  other ;  the  largest,  at  the  southwestern  extremity,  and  the 
smallest,  at  the  northeastern,  facing  each  other,  and  both  in  a  dia- 
metrical line  with  the  entrance  to  the  temple.  The  trilithons  rose 
one  above  the  other,  from  the  smallest  to  the  greatest ;  the  nearest, 
on  each  side,  to  the  smallest  corresponding,  and  the  same  of  the 
nearest,  one  on  each  side,  to  the  largest.  The  length  or  height  of 
the  pillars  of  the  largest  trilithon  was  twenty-one  feet  six  inches ; 
the  size  of  the  impost  was  probably  larger  than  the  one  described 
below.  The  lengths  of  the  pillars  of  the  trilithons  next  to  the 
largest  were  respectively  twenty-two  and  twenty-three  feet  from 
end  to  end,  including  what  had  been  in  the  ground,  which  part 
was  of  one,  three  feet,  and  of  the  other,  three  feet  six  inches ;  the 
mean  breadth  of  each  pillar  of  this  trilithon  is  seven  feet  nine  inches, 
the  thickness  three  feet.  The  impost,  which  was  a  perfect  parallel- 
epiped, was  sixteen  feet  long,  four  feet  six  inches  broad,  and  two 
feet  six  inches  thick,  and  weighed  nearly  seventy  tons.  The  spaces 
between  the  pillars  of  each  trilithon  were  twenty-one  or  twenty- 
two  inches.  The  imposts  and  pillars  of  each  trilithon  were  fitted 
together  as  the  pillars  and  imposts  of  the  outer  circle ;  but  the  im- 
posts not  being  continuous  and  connected,  as  those  in  the  outer 
circle,  the  pillars  of  the  trilithons  had  each  only  one  tenon,  whereas 
those  of  the  outer  circle  had  each  two  tenons ;  besides,  the  ends 
of  the  imposts  of  the  trilithons  appear  to  have  projected  beyond 
the  pillars.  All  the  stones  of  the  hexagon  were  a  bright-colored 
sandstone,  the  same  as  that  of  the  outer  circle. 

The  Ellipse  consisted  of  nineteen  upright  granite  stones,  two  feet 
six  inches  in  breadth,  one  foot  six  inches  thick,  and  varying  in 
height  in  the  order  of  the  trilithons,  from  six  to  eight  feet.  They 
were  somewhat  pyramidal  in  form,  like  those  of  the  inner  circle, 
and  tapering  upwards.  They  were  placed  at  about  the  central  dis- 
tance from  each  other  of  four  feet  six  inches. 

The  Altar  Stone  was  within  the  ellipse,  about  twelve  feet  from 
and  in  front  of  the  greatest  trilithon.  It  was  sixteen  feet  long, 
four  feet  wide,  and  one  foot  eight  inches  thick.  It  was  a  black 
stone,  different  from  and  harder  than  the  rest. 


60  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

The  Ditch  which  surrounded  Stonehenge  has  different  dimen- 
sions given  it  by  different  writers.  Some  make  it  only  fifteen  feet 
wide,  but  others  give  thirty  feet  as  its  width.*  It  had  an  embank- 
ment on  the  inner  side.  Sir  R.  C.  Hoar  remarks  :  "  Writers  have 
described  this  as  a  deep  ditch  and  thirty  feet  wide,  and  have  not 
noticed  the  ditch  being  on  the  outside  of  the  vallum.  According 
to  our  measurement  the  ditch  could  not  have  exceeded  fifteen 
feet;  in  short,  this  whole  line  of  circumvallation  was  a  very  slight 
work.  It  was  about  eleven  hundred  feet  in  circumference.  It  did 
not  entirely  surround  the  temple.  There  was  an  interval  of  sixty 
feet  to  the  northeast,  where  was  the  entrance  to  the  enclosure,  and  in 
face  of  it  the  entrance  to  the  temple." 

The  Avenue. — At  this  entrance  to  the  enclosure  the  ditch  on  each 
side  of  it  went  off  northeast  in  two  parallel  straight  lines,  sixty  feet 
apart,  to  the  distance  of  somewhat  more  than  seventeen  hundred 
feet  in  a  straight  line,  with  a  delicate  descent  down  to  the  bottom 
of  the  valley,  where  it  divided  into  two  branches.  The  earth  of 
the  ditches  was  thrown  inward  on  both  sides  upon  the  avenue,  to 
raise  it  a  little  above  the  plain. 

The  Western  Branch,  from  this  termination  at  the  bottom  of  the 
valley,  one  thousand  cubits  from  the  entrance  to  the  enclosure  of 
Stonehenge,  goes  off  with  a  sweep  at  first,  and  does  not  throw  itself 
into  a  straight  line  immediately,  but  continues  curving  along  the 
bottom  of  the  hill  till  it  meets  the  Cursus.  At  the  bottom  of  the 
valley  and  the  end  of  the  straight  part  of  Stonehenge  Avenue,  the 
Eastern  Wing  turns  off  to  the  right  with  a  circular  sweep,  and  then 
in  a  straight  line  proceeds  eastward  up  the  hill.  It  goes  just  be- 
tween two  most  conspicuous  groups  of  barrows,  crowning  the 
ridge  of  the  hill  eastward  of  Stonehenge,  between  it  and  Vespa- 
sian's camp,  separated  from  them  both  by  the  deep  valley  on 
each  side.  Whilst  we  are  here,  upon  the  elevation  of  this  hill,  be- 
tween these  two  famous  groups  of  barrows,  each  consisting  of  seven 
barrows,  it  is  twenty -seven  hundred  feet  from  the  beginning  of  this 
wing  of  the  avenue  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley  where  it  began.  It 
still  continues  in  the  very  same  direction  eastward  till  unfor- 
tunately broken  off  by  ploughed  ground  three  hundred  feet  from 
hence,  and  that  amounts  to  seven  hundred  and  fifty  feet  more  in 
length  to  the  avenue  ;  this  is  all  along  the  eastern  declivity  of  the 
hill,  and  reaches  near  the  bottom  of  the  valley  between  it  and  the 

*  Some  give  it  different  widths,  it  being  wider  in  some  places  than  in  others. 
This  variation  may  probably  account  for  the  different  widths  given  to  this 
fosse  by  different  writers. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  61 

hill  whereon  stands  Vespasian's  camp.  Now  reason  and  the 
judgment  I  have  got  in  conversing  with  works  of  this  kind  tell 
me  the  founders  would  never  begin  this  avenue  at  the  bottom  of 
a  valley,  but  rather  on  a  conspicuous  height,  which  is  visible  from 
a  great  distance  round.  We  must  suppose  the  intent  of  the  avenue 
was  to  direct  the  religious  processions  to  the  temple,  and  that  at 
the  beginning  of  it  they  made  fires  early  in  the  morning  of  that 
day  when  they  held  their  grand  festivals,  to  give  notice  to  all  the 
adjacent  country.  Therefore  when  we  cross  this  valley,  still  east- 
ward, and  mount  the  next  hill,  whereon  stands  Vespasian's  camp, 
we  find  exactly  such  a  place  as  we  could  wish,  and  extremely 
suitable  to  that  purpose,  for  it  commands  an  extensive  prospect, 
both  upwards  and  downwards,  of  the  river  Avon,  and  on  the  other 
side  of  it  for  many  miles — all  about  that  part  of  the  country 
where  it  is  highly  reasonable  to  believe  the  old  Britons  lived  who 
frequented  this  temple.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  Druids  to  give 
notice  by  fires  of  the  quarterly  days  of  sacrifice.  I  observed  there 
had  been  a  bank  across  the  bottom  of  the  valley  for  the  more  easy 
passage  of  the  religious  processions,  and  this  much  corroborates  my 
conjecture  of  the  avenue  reaching  hither. 

I  am  apt  to  believe,  from  the  conformity  I  have  observed  in 
these  works,  that  there  was  a  Sacellum*  or  little  temple  here  upon 
this  hill,  where  the  avenue  began.  In  travelling  to  Stonehenge, 
or  from  it,  I  have  found  several  of  these  kind  of  large  stones. 
One,  big  as  an}7  at  Stonehenge,  lies  about  three  miles  northward, 
in  Darrington  field,  another  in  the  water  at  Milford,  another  at 
Figheldean  ;  they  seem  to  have  been  carried  away  to  make  bridges, 
mill-dams,  or  the  like,  in  the  river.  There  is  another  in  the  Lon- 
don road  east  from  Ambresbury,  about  a  mile  from  that  town ;  an- 
other in  the  water  at  Bulford.  What  confirms  me  in  the  conjecture 
that  there  was  a  sacellum  here  originally  is  that  an  innumerable 
company  of  barrows  on  the  opposite  hill,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river  Avon,  coming  down  Haradon  Hill  and  in  the  line  of  the  avenue, 
seem  to  regard  it,  for  these  barrows  are  not  in  sight  of  Stonehenge 
itself,  by  reason  of  the  interposition  of  the  hill  whereon  stands  the 
group  of  the  seven  kings'  graves.  The  distance  from  hence  to 
Stonehenge  is  four  thousand  cubits.  In  order  to  have  a  just  notion  of 
this  avenue  it  is  necessary  to  go  to  the  neighboring  height  of  Hara- 

*  "A  small  place,  consecrated  to  a  god,  containing  an  altar,  and  sometimes 
also  a  statue  of  the  god  to  which  it  was  dedicated.  Festus  states  that  it  never  had 
a  roof.  It  was  therefore  a  sacred  enclosure  surrounded  by  a  fence  or  wall  to 
separate  it  from  the  profane  ground  around  it.  Its  form  was  sometimes  square, 
and  somstimes  round." 


62  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

don  Hill,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  The  largest  barrow  there, 
which  I  call  Hara's,  and  which  probably  gave  name  to  the  hill,  is 
in  the  line  of  the  avenue,  the  ford  of  Radfin  lying  between.  From 
this  barrow  you  see  the  ground  on  the  hill  whereon  stands  Ves- 
pasian's camp,  where  I  conjecture  the  avenue  of  Stonehenge  began, 
and  where  was  a  little  Sacellum,  as  we  conceive.  From  hence  to 
that  spot  a  valley  leads  very  commodiously  to  Radfin,  where  the 
original  ford  was. 

The  Cursus. — If  from  the  entrance  to  Stonehenge  you  look  north- 
east directly  down  the  avenue,  the  apex  of  a  hill  terminates  the 
horizon,  between  which  and  the  bottom  of  the  valley  you  see  the 
cursus,  a  work  which  has  never  yet  been  taken  notice  of,  being  a 
space  of  ground  included  between  two  long  banks  going  parallel, 
east  and  west  at  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  distance,  the  length 
ten  thousand  feet.  This  was  designed  for  the  chariot  races  and 
games  like  the  Olympic,  the  Isthmian,  etc.,  of  the  Greeks.  In 
the  valley,  on  this  side  of  it,  the  straight  part  of  the  avenue  ter- 
minates in  two  branches.  That  on  the  left  hand  leads  to  the  cursus, 
that  on  the  right  goes  directly  up  the  hill,  between  two  famous 
groups  of  barrows,  each  consisting  of  seven  in  number.  The  farthest, 
or  those  northward,  I  call  the  oldest  kings1  barrows ;  the  hithermost 
are  vulgarly  called  the  seven  kings'1  graves. 

Isolated  Stones. — As  the  spectator  advances  from  the  valley  up 
the  grand  avenue  to  the  temple,  the  first  stone  that  is  met  stands 
two  hundred  and  ten  feet  from  the  body  of  the  structure,  in  the 
midst  of  the  avenue,  and  in  a  straight  line  with  the  grand  entrance. 
The  shape  of  the  stone  is  pyramidal,  twenty-four  feet  nine  inches 
in  circumference,  sixteen  feet  four  inches  in  height,  nine  feet 
broad,  and  six  feet  thick.  This  stone  had  a  hole  in  it,  which  is 
observable  of  like  stones  sej  thus  near  to  similar  temples.  One 
hundred  feet  beyond,  and  in  a  line  with  this  last-mentioned  stone, 
was  another  very  large  one,  in  the  vallum  at  the  entrance  to  the 
enclosure;  it  was  twenty-one  feet  four  inches  long,  seven  feet 
broad,  and  three  feet  thick.  It  was  about  eighty-five  feet  from  the 
temple.  On  the  southeast  side  of  the  enclosure,  near  the  vallum, 
was  a  stone  ten  feet  six  inches  high,  thirteen  feet  six  inches  in 
circumference,  of  a  pyramidal  form,  and  nearly  ninety  feet  from 
the  temple.  On  the  northwest  side  of  the  enclosure,  and  directly 
opposite  this  last  stone,  was  a  stone  four  feet  high,  eleven  feet 
nine  inches  in  circumference,  ninety  feet  from  the  temple.  These 
are  all  the  stones  detached  from  this  venerable  temple. 

Directly  north  and  south  of  the  temple,  just  within  the  vallum, 
is  the  appearance  of  two  circular  holes,  encompassed  with  the 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  63 

earth  thrown  out  of  them,  but  they  are  now  almost  effaced  by 
time.  * 

Wansey,  who  wrote  of  Stonehenge  in  the  year  1796  A.  D.,  in  his 
account  of  it  makes  the  following  remark  in  regard  to  it :  "  Stone- 
henge stands  in  the  best  situation  possible  for  observing  the 
heavenly  bodies,  as  there  is  a  horizon  nearly  three  miles  distant 
on  all  sides,  and  on  either  side  distant  hills ;  trees  might  have  been 
planted  so  as  to  have  measured  any  number  of  degrees  of  a  circle, 
so  as  to  calculate  the  right  ascension  or  declination  of  a  star  or 
planet.  But  till  we  know  the  methods  by  which  the  ancient 
Druids  calculated  eclipses  long  before  they  happened,  so  as  to 
have  made  their  astronomical  observations  with  so  much  accuracy, 
as  Csesar  mentions,  we  cannot  explain  the  theoretical  uses  of  Stone- 
henge. It  is,  therefore,  no  proof  that  Stonehenge  was  not  intended 
for  calculating  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  because  no 
present  method  of  making  observations  is  to  be  applied  to  the 
Druids.  Their  geometrical  skill,  notwithstanding,  cannot  be 
doubted." 

Robertson,  in  the  appendix  to  his  "  History  of  India,"  says : 
"  The  method  of  predicting  eclipses  followed  by  the  Brahmins  is 
of  a  kind  altogether  different  from  any  found  among  the  nations 
of  Europe.  In  Chaldea  also,  as  well  as  in  Greece,  in  early  ages, 
the  method  of  calculating  eclipses  was  founded  on  the  observa- 
tion of  a  certain  period  or  cycle,  after  which  the  sun  and  moon 
agree  with  their  former  calculations." 

Monsieur  Bailly,  the  celebrated  astronomer  and  unfortunate 
Mayor  of  Paris,  maintained  "  That  none  of  all  astronomical  sys- 
tems of  Greece,  Persia  or  Tartary  can  be  made  to  agree  with  the 
Indian  tables,  which,  however,  calculated  back  to  remote  ages,  are 
found  quite  as  accurate  as  ours.  The  place  of  the  sun  for  the 
beginning  of  the  Calyougham,  in  the  year  3102  before  Christ,  as 
stated  in  the  tables  of  Tirvalore,  is  only  forty-seven  minutes  greater 
than  the  tables  of  M.  de  la  Caille,  when  corrected  by  the  calculations 
of  M.  de  la  Grange. 

"  Were  a  learned  Brahmin  to  contemplate  on  the  ruins  of  Stone- 
henge, he  might  possibly  comprehend  more  of  its  design  than  we 
do,  and  trace  some  vestiges  of  an  art  wholly  unknown  to  us." 

From  the  manuscript  of  Aubrey  we  gain  some  curious  informa- 
tion respecting  one  of  the  great  trilithons  of  the  hexagon.  The 
leaning  of  the  pillar  of  the  greatest  trilithon  is  attributed  to  the 
researches  made  in  the  year  1620  by  George,  Duke  of  Bucking- 

*  Stukeley,  1743,  A.  D. 


64  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

ham,  who,  when  King  James  the  First  was  at  Wilton  (the  seat  of 
the  Earls  of  Pembroke),  "  did  cause  the  middle  of  Stonehenge  to  be 
digged,  and  this  under  digging  was  the  cause  of  the  falling  downe 
or  recumbency  of  the  greatest,  not  here  twenty-one  foote  long." 
It  finally  fell  from  the  effects  of  a  severe  freeze  on  the  3d  of  January, 
1797.  In  the  process  of  this  digging  they  found  a  great  many 
horns  of  stags  and  oxen,  charcoal,  batterdashes,  heads  of  arrows, 
some  pieces  of  armor  eaten  out  with  rust,  bones  rotten,  but  whether 
of  stags  or  men  they  could  not  tell.  He  further  acids  that  Philip, 
Earl  of  Pembroke  (Lord  Chamberlayne  to  King  Charles  the  First), 
did  say :  "  That  an  altar  stone  was  found  in  the  middle  of  the 
area  here,  and  that  it  was  carried  to  St.  James's."* 

Cunningham  says  :  "  Any  person  well  versed  in  mineralogy 
will  perceive  that  the  stones  on  the  outside  of  the  work,  those  of 
the  outward  circle  and  its  imposts,  as  well  as  the  five  hugh  trili- 
thons,  are  all  from  Maryborough  Downs,  ten  miles  north  of  Stone- 
henge, which  are  covered  with  vast  quantities  of  stones  of  the  same 
kind,  whereas  those  of  the  inner  circle  and  the  interior  oval  are 
composed  of  granite,  hornstone,  and  most  probably  were  brought 
from  some  part  of  Devon  or  Cornwall,  as  I  know  not  where  such 
stones  could  be  procured  at  a  nearer  distance." 

Stukeley  says :  "  The  stones  of  which  Stonehenge  is  composed, 
beyond  any  controversy,  came  from  those  called  Grey  Withers 
upon  Marlborough  downs,  near  Aubury,  where  is  that  other  most 
wonderful  work  of  this  sort." 

THE  TEMPLE  OF  AVEBURY. 

At  Avebury,  or  Abury,  a  village  nineteen  miles  north  of  Stone- 
henge, is  the  site  of  the  most  remarkable  and  stupendous  monu- 
ment of  British  antiquity,  and  unquestionably  the  most  consid- 
erable and  important  in  Britain,  It  consists  of  a  great  number 
of  unhewn  stones  placed  perpendicularly  on  the  ground,  and  dis- 
posed in  parallel  rows  and  circles.  There  were  four  of  the  latter 
included  in  a  fifth  ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  southern  avenue,  at  one 
mile  distant  from  the  great  circle,  there  were  two  concentric  oval 
arrangements  of  stones.  The  number  of  stones  originally  em- 
ployed in  the  whole  work  amounted  to  six  hundred  and  fifty,  and 
most  of  them  measured  from  fifteen  to  seven teenf  feet  in  height 

*  As  these  relics  were  found  between  the  altar  and  the  great  trilithon,  where 
the  digging  took  place,  may  not  these  remains  be  those  of  the  sacrifices  offered 
on  the  altar?  Showing  that  Stonehenge  was  not  only  devoted  to  astronomy, 
but  also  to  religious  purposes. 

f  This  measure,  15  to  17,  is  from  the  Royal  Gazette;  in  Kees'  Encyclopaedia, 
from  which  the  description  is  taken,  the  measure  is  "from  10  to  19." 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  65 

above  the  ground,  forty  feet  in  circumference,  and  weighed 
from  forty  to  fifty-four  tons  each.  The  large  circle  and  the 
principal  part  of  this  temple  were  surrounded  by  a  very  consid- 
erable vallum  and  ditch,  which  included  an  area  of  twenty-two 
acres  of  ground,  and  measured  about  fourteen  hundred  feet  in  a 
transverse  diameter.  This  bank  and  ditch  must  have  been  pro- 
duced with  immense  labor,  and  its  peculiarity  of  formation  proves 
that  it  was  never  intended  for  a  fortified  place  in  time  of  war,  as 
the  bank  is  thrown  up  on  the  outer  verge  of  the  ditch  ;  whereas 
all  military  encampments  have  the  bank  within  the  ditch,  to  give 
an  advantageous  height  of  ground  to  the  besieged.  The  vallum 
measured  about  thirty  feet  in  height  from  the  top  to  the  middle  of 
the  ditch.  Supposing  that  it  was  raised  for  spectators  to  behold 
any  ceremonies  performed  in  the  enclosed  area,  it  would  accom- 
modate more  than  seventy  thousand  persons  and  allow  two  square 
feet  to  each.  The  boundary  embraced  one  large  and  four  small 
circular  arrangements  of  stones.  The  first  was  about  thirty-five 
feet  within  the  ditch,  and  consisted  of  a  hundred  stones  placed 
at  nearly  regular  distances  from  each  other.  Within  the  circle 
were  two  double  concentric  circles  composed  of  eighty-eight 
stones,  three  others  called  the  cove,  and  one  called  the  central 
obelisk.  From  the  large  circle  proceeded  two  avenues,  or  double 
rows  of  large  upright  stones,  placed  at  nearly  regular  distances  in 
each  row,  and  from  one  row  to  the  other.  These  consisted  of  two 
hundred  stones  extending  about  one  mile  in  length  each  way,  and 
were  called  the  Beckhampton  and  Kennet  avenues.  The  first 
proceeded  from  the  temple  in  a  westerly  direction,  and  was  termi- 
nated with  a  single  stone,  while  the  other  took  a  southeastern 
direction,  and  had  two  oval  stones  at  the  extremity.  The  objects 
we  have  already  described  are  considered  by  some  persons  as  the 
whole  of  this  extraordinary  monument;  but  it  seems  very  proba- 
ble that  Silbury  Hill,  some  cromlechs,  other  circles,  and  numerous 
relics,  were  originally  connected  with  it.  Silbury  Hill  is  consid- 
ered as  the  largest  tumulus  in  England,  and  its  situation  implies 
that  it  was  intended  to  mark  the  meridian  line  from  the  centre  of 
the  temple.  It  was  due  south  of  the  great  circle.  It  measured 
one  hundred  and  five  feet  at  the  top,  five  hundred  and  sixty  at 
the  base,  two  hundred  and  forty  in  height,  following  the  surface 
of  its  northern  side,  and  sixteen  hundred  and  eighty  in  circum- 
ference at  the  bottom.  From  the  top  of  this  artificial  hill  a  spec- 
tator commands  a  view  of  the  western  avenue  and  the  whole  area 
of  the  temple,  with  a  considerable  tract  of  flat  country  to  the 
north  and  west. 

5 


66  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

Goths,  Vandals  and  Turks  have  been  stigmatized  as  the  merci- 
less destroyers  of  every  venerable  and  interesting  monument  of 
antiquity ;  but  surely  they  are  not  more  reprehensible  than  many 
of  the  inhabitants  of  this  highly  civilized  and  refined  country, 
some  of  whom  have  exercised  much  ingenuity  and  labor  in  wan- 
tonly and  deliberately  destroying  this  singular  monument  of 
ancient  customs.  We  have  already  stated  that  it  originally  con- 
sisted of  six  hundred  and  fifty  stones,  but  most  of  these  have  been 
broken  in  pieces  by  means  of  fire  and  manual  labor,  and  the 
dissevered  fragments  appropriated  to  the  construction  of  walls, 
hovels,  and  common  roads.  In  1722  only  forty  remained  of  the 
great  circle,  of  which  number  seventeen  were  standing ;  but  these 
are  now*  reduced  to  nine.  The  interior  circles  were  almost  entire 
in  1716,  but  in  1723  only  two  stones  were  left  erect  belonging 
to  the  outward  circle  of  the  northern  temple.  Of  the  Ken  net 
avenue  there  were  seventy-two  stones  in  1772,  of  which  only 
eight  or  ten  remain  ;  and  only  two  of  the  Beckhampton  avenue. 

The  stones  used  in  forming  this  temple  are  of  siliceous  grit, 
being  of  the  same  species  as  those  that  accompany  the  great 
stratum  of  chalk  which  .crosses  England  from  E.N.E.  to  W.S.W. 
These  stones  lie  on  the  ground  in  detached  masses,  unconnected 
with  any  stratum  of  rock.f 

THE  TEMPLE  OF  CARNAC. 

The  monuments  of  the  first  people  who  are  known  to  have  in- 
habited western  Europe  still  exist,  but  in  all  probability  ages 
before  these  first  known  inhabitants  other  peoples  inhabited  these 
regions,  and  transmitted  their  religious  ideas  and  ceremonies  to 
those  who  succeeded  them.  Though  the  conformation  of  the 
coast  of  western  Europe  in  remote  ages  is  unknown,  and  though 
the  people  who  inhabited  it  and  their  intercourse  with  the  rest  of 
the  world  are  also  unknown,  yet  great  changes  are  known  to  have 
taken  place  in  the  earth's  surface,  and  it  is  probable  that  lands 
have  been  severed  that,  once  united,  formed  a  more  extensive 
continent,  which  stretched  beyond  the  present  limits  of  western 
Europe,  and  it  is  probable  at  some  day  scientific  investigation 
will  show  that  the  ancient  people  of  the  new  world,  though  sepa- 
rated by  vast  oceans  from  those  of  the  old,  were  nevertheless  of 
the  same  stock,  and  that  the  monuments  and  the  religious  ideas 

*  The  edition  of  Bees'  Encyclopaedia  from  which  the  above  was  taken  is 
dated  1819. 

t  In  Rees'  Encyclopaedia,  under  the  name  Avebury,  will  be  found  an  inter- 
esting account  of  the  purposes  of  this  wonderful  work. 


CHAP.  VIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  67 

and  ceremonies  of  the  most  ancient  people  of  western  Europe  are 
but  prototypes  of  those  of  the  ancient  people  of  America. 

Where  the  Gaels  spread  themselves  over  Britain  and  Gaul  they 
made  their  monuments  and  erected  their  temples.  Some  of  these 
have  survived  the  ravages  of  time  and  the  violence  of  man. 
Though  some  of  them  be  described  as  still  existing,  yet  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  many  years  have  elapsed  since  the  original 
accounts  of  these  monuments  were  made  by  observant  and  intel- 
ligent travellers,  and  that  in  the  meantime  the  action  of  the  ele- 
ments and  the  spirit  of  utility  have  made  havoc  with  many  of 
them,  and  but  for  the  accounts  of  these  travellers  the  existence  of 
some  of  them  would  not  now  be  known.  Human  violence  in 
some  instances  has  been  more  effective  in  the  destruction  of 
the  monuments  of  antiquity  than  the  elements  themselves.  The 
Gallic  structures,  though  of  extreme  antiquity,  have,  from  the 
peculiarity  of  their  situation,  survived,  while  other  monuments, 
more  conspicuous  and  more  exposed,  have  perished.  The  follow- 
ing accounts  of  some  of  the  most  remarkable  monuments  of  the 
Gaels  will  show  the  extent  to  which  their  religious  institutions 
have  reached  to  the  north,  and  the  striking  resemblance  of  their 
monuments  in  many  respects  to  the  most  ancient  structures  of 
America. 

There  are  met  with  here  and  there  in  France  enormous  blocks 
of  rude  stones  erected  and  fixed  in  the  earth,  isolated  or  in  groups, 
regularly  in  a  right  line.  They  are  rarely  found  in  the  plains,  but 
frequently  in  the  mountainous  country.  They  are  erected  most 
often  on  mounds,  either  natural  or  artificial.  Sometimes  the  block, 
instead  of  being  planted  in  the  ground,  is  poised  in  equilibrium 
upon  another  stone,  or  upon  the  ground,  and  oscillates  at  the 
least  shock  without  quitting  its  base.  Besides,  rude  pillars  sup- 
port a  table  composed  of  one  or  more  great  flat  stones,  and  form 
a  kind  of  grotto  closed  at  one  of  its  ends  by  another  flat  rock. 
Some  of  these  artificial  grottoes  are  at  least  twenty  metres  in 
depth.  In  some  places,  much  more  rarely,  the  blocks  are  arranged 
in  vast  concentric  circles. 

The  Gallic  stones  appear  preserved  in  the  greatest  number  in 
gradation  as  we  advance  towards  the  west  of  Gaul.  The  rows 
and  grottoes  of  stone  take  extraordinary  proportions  in  the  part 
of  Amorica  where  they  still  speak  the  Cimbric  ("  Kimbric  ")  lan- 
guage, especially  in  the  ancient  country  of  the  Venetes,  the  coun- 
try of  the  Vannes.  Nearly  two  thousand  men-hire  lie  scattered 
overthrown  in  the  single  heath  of  Upper  Brambien.  At  Carnac 
eleven  avenues  of  granite  men-hirs,  some  of  which  are  twenty  feet 


68  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  VIII. 

in  height,  remains  of  a  collection  much  greater,  still  erect,  extend 
in  a  straight  line  farther  than  the  eye  can  see.  At  Erdeven  and 
at  Plouhinec  are  also  seen  considerable  rows.  At  Lecmariaker, 
among  a  group  of  tumuli,  dolmens  and  men-Mrs,  is  seen  lying  on 
the  ground  and  broken  into  four  pieces  a  monolith  of  twenty-one 
metres  in  length,  which  weighs  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
kilogrammes.  Not  far  from  there,  if  one  climbs  upon  the  summit 
of  the  tumulus  which  crowns  the  isle  of  Gavr-Ynys,  in  the  strait 
by  which  the  great  lagoon  of  Morbihad  communicates  with  the 
sea,  he  beholds  the  whole  of  one  coast  covered  with  Gallic  monu- 
ments for  three  leagues  in  length  by  one  in  brea'dth,  and  this  sol- 
emn horizon  is  closed  by  the  peninsula  of  Quiberon,  which  keeps 
also  its  raised  stones,  and  by  the  immense  tumulus  of  the  penin- 
sula of  Rhuys,  which  is  one  hundred  feet  in  height  by  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  at  the  base.  In  excavating  this  tumulus  there  was 
found  buried  under  an  enormous  dolman  the  remains  of  a  human 
skeleton,  thirty  knives  of  jade  ascien  or  tumalite  dure,  and  three 
necklaces  of  jasper,  agates,  and  crystal  of  quartz  beads  unpolished. 
The  walls  of  the  cavern  were  covered  with  sculptures,  among  which 
were  serpents,  lengthened  triangles,  recalling  the  cuniform  char- 
acters, three  collars  or  necklaces  superposed.  The  neighboring 
village  is  called  Tumac.  It  is  probable  that  the  tumuli  of  Tumac 
was  the  funeral  monument  of  a  great  religious  chief,  for  the  knives 
of  jade  were  the  sacred  implements,  and  the  collars  of  jasper  were 
probably  the  sacerdotal  ornaments.  The  collars  of  knights  were 
of  gold.  Collars  of  gold  have  been  found  under  divers  dolmens 
and  tumuli  with  human  remains  and  earthen  vases.  The  two 
processes  of  inhumation  and  cremation  of  the  dead  were  known 
to  the  Gauls,  but  the  second  was  preferred  as  more  comformable 
to  their  religious  ideas. 

What  was  the  meaning,  what  was  the  object  of  these  rude  monu- 
ments where  man  has  evidently  made  it  a  law  not  to  modify  in 
any  respect  the  forms  of  nature?  What  repeated  excavations 
have  revealed  with  certainty  is  that  the  tumuli  have  most  often 
the  funereal  character,  and  that  this  character  belongs  equally,  at 
least,  to  a  part  of  the  dolmens,  as,  besides,  the  Kimric  and  Gaelic 
poetry  indicates.  We  cannot  doubt,  after  these  same  evidences, 
that  these  artificial  caves  in  which  are  deposited  the  remains  of 
heroes  were  also  sanctuaries.  We  know  also  that  these  sacred  en- 
closures, where  were  celebrated  religious  rites,  whether  they  were 
but  plain  circles  of  stones  or  enclosed  structures,  were  called 
Nemedes  (Neimheidh*),  from  the  name  of  a  mysterious  Eastern  pa- 
triarch, personification  of  the  unity  of  the  Gallic  race  in  Asia,  and 


CHAP.  IX.]  OF    AMERICA.  69 

common  father  of  the  Gaels  and  Kimris.  This  word  Ndmhddh 
is  found  as  the  radical  of  many  Gallic  names,  as  Nemetum  (Cler- 
mont),  Nemausus  (Nimes).  Neimheidh  appears  to  have  signified, 
primitively,  at  the  same  time,  temple  and  priest,  law  and  legislator. 

In  these  enclosures,  in  these  sancturaries,  constructed  with  the 
masses  of  material  such  as  they  sprung  from  the  hands  of  the 
Creator,  never  is  there  erected  a  representative  figure.  No  idols 
are  discovered  on  the  soil  belonging  to  the  ages  of  Gallic  inde- 
pendence. The  absence  of  idols,  the  undressed  stones,  the  absence 
of  images  in  architecture — in  other  words,  the  interdiction  of  man 
to  modify  by  the  combinations  of  his  imagination  the  works  of  the 
Creator  so  as  to  represent  materially  the  divine  powers,  are  they 
traits  peculiar  to  the  Gauls  ?  History  attests  the  contrary ;  it  is 
the  general  character  of  that  religious  age  of  humanity,  which  we  can 
call  with  just  title  the  primitive  church,  of  which  we  can  discover 
the  trace  among  the  first  Indians,  China,  and  everywhere,  and 
which  manifestly  appears  in  the  traditions  of  the  Persians,  the 
Hebrews,  the  Teutons,  and  all  the  nomads  confounded  by  the 
Greeks  under  the  name  of  Scythians. 

These  traits,  common  to  the  Gauls,  with  so  many  Japethic 
and  Shemetic  peoples,  if  not  with  all  the  primitive  world,  become 
for  them  a  distinction  in  classical  antiquity  by  their  fidelity  in 
preserving  them  in  the  presence  of  those  cultures  of  art,  image 
and  imagination  which  constituted  Grecian,  Etruscan  and  Latin 
idolatry.* 


CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Serpent  Mound  of  Oban,  Scotland — Prehistoric  Remains  near  the  Serpent 
Mound  of  Ohio — The  Kistvean — The  Rocking  Stone  of  Fordham,  New 
York,  and  Druidical  or  Sabian  Circles  in  Central  Arabia — The  Monumental 
Stones  of  Algeria,  Constantino  and  Tripoli,  in  Africa — The  Men-hirs  of 
Setif,  Monumental  Stones  of  Hindustan,  the  Dekkan  and  Southern  India. 

THERE  remains  something  to  be  said  of  Serpent  Mounds  and  of 
some  other  remarkable  monuments  of  the  remotest  antiquity. 

About  three  miles  from  Oban,  in  Scotland,  "  lies  a  huge  serpent- 
shaped  mound,  the  very  existence  of  which  was  utterly  unknown 
to  the  scientific  world  till  discovered  by  Mr.  Phene,  and  by  him  re- 
vealed to  the  Antiquarian  Society  in  the  summer  of  1871.  But 
for  the  presence  of  one  of  the  few  initiated,  who  had  fortunately 

*  Martin,  "Histoire  de  France." 


70  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IX. 

accompanied  us,"  says  Miss  Gumming,  "  we  should  assuredly  have 
passed  close  below  the  heathery  mound  which  forms  the  serpent's 
tail  (in  fact  the  road  has  been  cut  right  across  the  tip  of  it)  with- 
out ever  suspecting  that  it  differed  from  the  surrounding  moor- 
land. In  short  we  should  have  been  no  wiser  than  our  forefathers 
who,  for  centuries,  have  passed  and  repassed  along  the  same 
beaten  tract,  whence  only  an  occasional  sportsman  or  shepherd 
has  had  occasion  to  diverge.  It  does  seem  strange,  however,  that 
not  one  of  these,  looking  down  from  the  higher  ground  to  the  west- 
ward, should  ever  have  called  attention  to  so  remarkable  a  form,  and 
one,  moreover,  which  rises  so  conspicuously  from  the  flat,  grassy 
plain  which  stretches  for  some  distance  on  either  side  with  scarcely 
an  undulation,  save  two  artificial  circular  mounds,  in  one  of  which 
lies  several  large  stones  forming  a  cromlech.  These  mounds  are 
situated  a  short  distance  to  the  south,  to  the  right  of  the  serpent. 

"  Finding  ourselves  thus  unconsciously  in  the  presence  of  the 
Great  Dragon,  we  hastened  to  improve  our  acquaintance,  and  in  a 
couple  of  minutes  had  scrambled  on  to  the  ridge  which  forms  his 
backbone,  and  thence  perceived  that  we  were  standing  on  an  arti- 
ficial mound  three  hundred  feet  in  length,  forming  a  double  curve, 
like  a  huge  letter  S,  and  wonderfully  perfect  in  anatomical  outline. 
This  we  perceived  the  more  perfectly  on  reaching  the  head,  which 
lies  at  the  western  end,  whence  diverge  small  ridges.  On  the  head 
rests  a  circle  of  stones  supposed  to  be  emblematic  of  the  solar 
disk,  and  exactly  corresponding  with  the  solar  circle  as  represented 
in  the  head  of  the  mystic  serpents  of  Egypt  and  Phoenicia,  and  in 
the  great  American  Serpent  Mound.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Phene"'s 
first  visit  to  this  spot  there  still  remained  in  the  centre  of  this 
circle  some  traces  of  an  altar,  which  have  since  wholly  disap- 
peared. 

"  The  circle  was  excavated  on  the  12th  day  of  October,  1871,  and 
within  it  were  found  three  large  stones  forming  a  chamber  which 
contained  burnt  human  bones,  charcoal  and  charred  hazel  nuts. 
A  flint  instrument  was  also  found,  beautifully  and  minutely  ser- 
rated at  the  edge  ;  nevertheless,  it  was  at  once  evident  on  opening 
the  cairn,  that  the  place  had  been  already  ransacked,  probably 
in  secret  by  treasure-hunters,  as  there  is  no  tradition  of  any  exca- 
vation for  scientific  purposes  having  ever  been  made  here. 

"  On  the  removal  of  the  peat-moss  and  heather  from  the  ridge  of 
the  serpent's  back,  it  was  found  that  the  whole  length  of  the  spine 
was  carefully  constructed  with  regularly  and  systematically  placed 
stones  at  such  an  angle  as  to  throw  off  rain.  To  those  who  know 
how  slow  is  the  growth  of  peat-moss  even  in  damp  and  undrained 


CHAP.  IX.]  OF    AMERICA.  71 

places,  the  depth  to  which  it  has  here  attained,  though  in  a  dry 
and  thoroughly  exposed  situation,  and  raised  from  seventeen  to 
twenty  feet  above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  moss,*  tells  of  many 
a  long  century  of  silent,  undisturbed  growth,  since  the  days  when 
the  serpent's  spine  was  the  well-worn  path  daily  trodden  by  rever- 
ent feet.  The  spine  is,  in  fact,  a  long,  narrow  causeway  made  of 
large  stones  set  like  the  vertebrae  of  some  huge  animal.  They 
form  a  ridge  sloping  off  in  an  angle  at  each  side,  which  is  con- 
tinued downwards  with  an  arrangement  of  smaller  stones  sugges- 
tive of  ribs. 

"  It  is  certainly  a  fact  worthy  of  notice,  that  wherever  names  oc- 
cur combining  the  syllables  Ob  and  On  (the  Serpent  and  Sun  dei- 
ties of  Egypt  and  Phoenicia),  there  these  forms  of  worship  can  be 
proven  t  •>  have  once  prevailed,  and  so  it  has  been  suggested,  as 
not  impossible,  that  just  as  the  Israelites  called  the  first  place  where 
they  encamped,  after  the  upraising  of  the  brazen  serpent,  Oboth, 
the  race  who  built  the  serpentine  mound  terminating  in  a  solar 
circle,  and  who,  doubtless,  were  settlers  from  some  eastern  land, 
may  have  given  the  name  of  Ob  or  Oban  to  the  nearest  town." 

In  connection  with  this  account  of  the  Serpent  Mound  of  Oban, 
the  following  "  Prehistoric  Remains  "  will  be  interesting: 

[Correspondence  of  the  Times- Democrat,  New  Orleans,  March  4th,  1894.] 
"  HILLSBORO,  0.,  Feb.  24th,  1894.— Farmer  Warren  Co  wen,  of 
Hills boro,  O.,  while  fox-hunting  recently,  discovered  several  ancient 
graves.  They  were  situated  upon  a  high  point  of  land  in  High- 
land county,  about  a  mile  from  the 'famous  Serpent  mound.  As 
soon  as  the  weather  permitted,  Cowen  excavated  several  of  these 
graves.  He  informed  your  correspondent  that  the  graves  were 
made  of  large  limestone  slabs,  two  and  a  half  to  three  feet  in  length, 
and  a  foot  wide.  These  were  set  on  edge,  about  a  foot  apart.  Sim- 
ilar slabs  covered  the  grave.  A  single  one,  somewhat  larger,  was  at 
the  head,  and  another  at  the  feet.  The  top  of  the  grave  was  two 
feet  below  the  present  surface.  Upon  opening  one  of  the  graves,  a 
skeleton,  upward  of  six  feet  in  length,  was  brought  to  light.  There 
were  a  number  of  stone  hatchets,  beads,  and  ornaments  of  pecu- 
liar workmanship  near  the  right  arm.  Several  large  flint  spear 
and  arrow-heads  among  the  ribs  gave  evidence  that  the  mighty 
warrior  died  in  battle.  In  another  grave  was  the  skeleton  of  a 
man  equally  as  large.  The  right  leg  had  been  broken  during  life, 
and  the  bones  had  grown  together.  The  protuberance  at  the  point 
of  union  was  as  large  as  an  egg,  and  the  limb  was  bent  like  a  bow. 

*  This  probably  indicates  the  height  of  the  serpent  mound. 


72  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IX. 

By  the  feet  lay  a  skull  of  some  enemy  or  slave.  Several  pipes  and 
pendants  were  near  the  shoulders." 

In  the  other  graves  Cowen  made  equally  interesting  finds.  It 
seems  that  this  region  was  populated  by  a  fairly  intelligent  people, 
and  that  the  serpent  mound  was  an  object  of  worship.  Near  the 
graves  is  a  large  field,  in  which  are  broken  implements,  fragments 
of  pottery,  and  burnt  stones,  giving  evidence  of  a  prehistoric  vil- 
lage site.  Probably  the  people  buried  on  the  hill  lived  in  this 
village.* 

The  Old  World  has,  besides  tumuli,  other  very  ancient  monu- 
ments, which  are,  in  this  connection,  worthy  of  notice — monu- 
ments to  which  there  are  none  similar  in  America — and  these  are 
the  Druidic  circles,  cromlechs  and  dolmens,  while  the  kistveans — 
that  is,  stone  chests — and  loggon  or  rocking-stones,  are  found  here. 
Kistveans  commonly  consist  of  four  flags,  three  of  which  are  set  up 
edgeways ;  two,  being  nearly  parallel,  and  the  third  at  right  angles 
to  them,  form  the  three  sides  of  the  chest,  and  the  fourth  flag,  laid 
flat  on  top  of  these,  makes  the  lid.  At  Fordham,  adjoining  the  city 
of  New  York,  there  was,  about  the  year  1850,  a  loggon,  or  rocking - 
stone,  which  was,  according  to  my  recollection,  about  three  or  four 
feet  high  and  four  or  five  feet  long.  It  was  oval  in  form,  both  ends 
shaped  alike.  It  stood  on  a  level  surface,  without  any  other  stones 
near  it.  I  do  not  remember  the  kind  of  stone  it  was.  As  large  as 
this  stone  was,  I  easily  moved  it  with  only  one  hand.  Stone 
chests  in  the  New  World  have  been  mentioned  by  antiquarians  as 
depositories  of  the  remains  of  ancient  inhabitants  of  America. 

There  is  a  monument  mentioned  by  Palgrave  in  his  "  Central 
and  Eastern  Arabia,"  situated  about  midway  between  the  Arabian 
and  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  not  far  north  of  the  centre  of  the  Ara- 
bian peninsula.  Palgrave,  speaking  of  it,  says :  "  We  halted  for  a 
moment  on  the  verge  of  the  uplands,  to  enjoy  the  magnificent 
prospect  before  us.  Below  lay  the  wide  plain.  .  .  .  All  along  the 
ridge  where  we  stood,  and  visible  at  various  distances  down  the 
level,  rose  the  tall,  circular  watch-towers  of  Kaseem.  But  imme- 
diately before  us  stood  a  more  remarkable  monument — one  that 
fixed  the  wonder  and  attention  even  of  our  Arab  companions 
themselves ;  for  hardly  had  we  descended  the  narrow  path  where 
it  winds,  from  ledge  to  ledge,  down  to  the  bottom,  when  we  saw 

*  It  is  often  mentioned  that  large  skeletons  are  found  in  mounds.  This  prob- 
ably comes  from  the  fact  that  great  physical  force  in  ancient  barbarous  times 
had  a  great  influence  among  such  people,  especially  when  accompanied  with 
intelligence  and  courage  ;  and  such  men  became  chiefs,  distinguished  themselves, 
and  were  buried  with  great  demonstrations  of  veneration  and  respect. 


CHAP.  IX.]  OF    AMERICA.  73 

before  us  several  huge  stones,  like  enormous  boulders,  placed  end- 
ways, perpendicular  on  the  soil,  while  some  of  them  yet  upheld 
similar  masses  laid  transversely  over  their  summits.  They  were 
arranged  in  a  curve — once  forming  a  part,  it  would  appear,  of  a 
large  circle — and  many  other  Ij^ke  fragments  lay  rolled  on  the 
ground  at  a  moderate  distance.  The  number  of  these  still  up- 
right was,  to  speak  from  memory,  eight  or  nine.  Two,  at  about 
ten  or  twelve  feet  apart,  one  from  the  other,  and  resembling  huge 
gate-posts,  yet  bore  their  horizontal  lintel — a  long  block  laid  across 
them ;  a  few  were  deprived  of  their  upper  traverse ;  the  rest  sup- 
ported each  its  head-piece,  in  defiance  of  time  and  of  the  more 
destructive  efforts  of  man.  So  nicely  balanced  did  one  of  these 
cross-bars  appear,  that,  in  hope  it  might  prove  a  rocking-stone,  I 
guided  my  camel  right  under  it,  and  then  stretching  up  my  riding- 
stick  at  arm's-length,  I  could  just  manage  to  touch  and  push  it, 
but  it  did  not  stir.  Meanwhile,  the  respective  heights  of  camel 
rider  and  stick,  taken  together,  would  place  the  stone  in  question 
fully  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground. 

"  These  blocks  seemed,  by  their  quality,  to  have  been  hewn  from 
the  neighboring  limestone  cliff,  and  roughly  shaped,  but  present 
no  further  trace  of  art — no  groove  or  cavity  of  sacrificial  import, 
much  less  anything  intended  for  figure  or  ornament.  Pointing 
towards  Rass,  our  companions  affirmed  that  a  second  and  similar 
stone  circle,  also  of  gigantic  dimensions,  existed  there ;  and  lastly 
they  mentioned  a  third  towards  the  southwest ;  that  is,  on  the  con- 
fines of  Hejaz. 

"  That  the  object  of  these  strange  constructions  was  in  some 
measure  religious,  seems  to  me  hardly  doubtful ;  and  if  the  learned 
conjectures  that  would  discover  a  planetary  symbolism  in  Stone- 
henge  and  Carnac  have  any  real  foundation,  this  Arabian  monu- 
ment, erected  in  a  land  where  the  heavenly  bodies  are  known  to 
have  been  once  venerated  by  the  inhabitants,  may  make  a  like 
claim ;  in  fact,  there  is  little  difference  between  the  stone-wonder 
of  Kaseem  and  that  of  Wiltshire,  except  that  the  one  is  in  Arabia, 
the  other,  though  the  more  perfect,  in  England." 

Miss  Gumming,  in  speaking  of  the  Druidic  monuments  of  the 
Old  World,  says  :  "  Of  all  the  wide-spread  links  which  bind  to- 
gether the  shadowy  past  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  worlds,  none 
are  more  striking  than  the  stubborn  facts  of  these  mysterious 
stone  circles  and  other  rude  stone  monuments.  On  the  remotest 
Orcadian  Isles,  as  in  the  Hebrides,  on  the  green  shores  of  the  Isle 
of  Lewis,  and  beneath  the  mountain  peaks  of  Arran,  and  in  many 
another  isle,  we  find  the  same  uncouth  temples  and  tombs  that 


74  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  IX. 

meet  us  again  in  the  heart  of  the  Indian  jungle.  Perhaps  the  most 
noteworthy  monument  of  the  sort  in  Scotland  is  the  serpentine 
double  avenue  at  Kames,  on  the  Kyles  of  Bute,  discovered  so  re- 
cently as  January,  1875. 

"  Whatever  truth  or  falsehood  there  may  be  in  the  theories  which 
connect  these  cyclopean  remains  with  the  worship  of  olden  days, 
certain  it  is,  as  we  travel  eastward  we  again  and  again  find  the 
same  forms  repeated  so  exactly  that  it  seems  hardly  possible  to 
doubt  their  having  been  the  work  of  kindred  races.  Thus  on  cer- 
tain stones  near  Carthage  the  circle  and  crescent  are  found  carved 
as  emblems  of  the  sun  and  moon,  just  as  on  the  British  monu- 
ments. As  to  Algeria,  it  has  recently  been  discovered  to  abound 
in  every  known  form  of  rude  stone  monuments,  even  including 
that  mysterious  combination  of  square  with  two  circles  which  has 
puzzled  antiquarians  in  the  American  States.  At  one  spot,  Roknia, 
three  thousand  monoliths  are  grouped  together  as  if  in  a  vast  city 
of  the  dead ;  and  a  second  cluster,  nearly  as  large,  has  since  been 
discovered  near  Constantine.  In  the  district  near  Setif  the  num- 
ber of  men-Mrs  has  been  calculated  at  ten  thousand,  including 
some  stones  so  gigantic  that  one  is  described  as  fifty-two  feet  high 
and  twenty-six  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base  ;  while  we  hear  of 
a  dolmen  near  Tiaret,  the  cap-stone  of  which  is  sixty-five  feet 
long  by  twenty-six  feet  broad,  and  upwards  of  nine  feet  thick 
— a  rock-mass  which  is  poised  on  boulders  of  thirty  to  forty  feet 
high. 

"  Tripoli  likewise  possesses  many  of  these  mysterious  remains, 
more  especially  certain  groups  of  three  great  stones  so  placed  as  to 
form  high,  narrow  door-ways,  so  narrow  that  a  man  of  average  size 
can  scarcely  squeeze  his  way  through  between  them.*  We  next 
hear  of  them  being  discovered  by  Palgrave  in  Central  Arabia, 
where  he  finds  them  placed,  as  at  Stonehenge,  in  connection  with 
circles  of  great  monoliths. 

"  To  pass  onward  to  Hindustan,  we  find  dolmens  in  Malabar  con- 
sisting of  one  huge  stone  poised  on  three  upright  ones,  precisely 
the  same  as  those  found  in  Britain.  There  is  not  one  form  of  cy- 
clopean monument  known  in  the  British  Isles  or  in  France  which 
does  not  also  exist  in  the  Dekkan,  either  for  worship  or  for  sepul- 

*  In  "The  Antiquities  of  England  and  Wales,"  by  Francis  Grose,  is  this: 
' '  There  is  a  rock  of  the  Tolmen  kind  at  Bombay,  in  the  East  Indias,  which  is 
held  in  great  veneration  by  the  Gentoos.  It  is  called  the  rock  of  purification.  A 
passage  through  it  is  considered  as  purifying  the  penitent  from  all  sins.  The 
aperture  is  described  as  so  small  that  a  man  of  any  corpulency  cannot  possibly 
squeeze  through." 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  75 

ture ;  oblongs,  circles,  parallel  lines,  and  many  little  circles  within 
one  large  circle. 

"  In  various  parts  of  Southern  India  there  have  been  found  a  great 
multitude  of  circular  sepulchral  tumuli.  They  contain  the  same 
class  of  relics,  coarse  pottery,  arms,  arrow-heads,  &c.,  buried  some- 
times with  bodies,  sometimes  with  urns  containing  human  ashes 
collected  from  funeral  pyres  after  cremation.  They  exist  in  thou- 
sands to  the  south  of  a  line  drawn  from  Nangpore  to  Belgaum. 
In  parts  of  Mysore  and  the  Neilgherries,  in  Arcot  and  other  places 
they  are  met  with  in  large  numbers,  occasionally  accompanied  by 
kistveans  ;  sometimes  by  dolmens  and  cromlechs ;  in  fact  just 
what  we  call  Druidical  stones.  In  some  of  these  kistveans  are 
found  bodies  carefully  laid,  while  above  them  are  heaped  human 
bones,  male  and  female,  in  indiscriminate  confusion,  as  though 
they  had  been  offered  in  sacrifice  to  the  dead.  The  same  tumuli 
are  found  by  thousands  near  the  Krishna  and  Moosy  rivers.  It  is 
rather  a  singular  and  hideously  suggestive  fact  that  in  some  of  the 
corresponding  barrows  of  ancient  Britain  these  bodies  that  seem 
to  have  been  sacrificed  to  the  dead  are  found  in  such  a  condition, 
with  bones  split  and  skulls  cracked,  and  all  tossed  about  in  wild- 
est confusion,  that  it  is  generally  supposed  the  flesh  had  been 
eaten  at  some  cannibal  feast  after  the  sacrifice !  a  custom  which 
some  of  the  Indian  hill  tribes  are  suspected  of  having  kept  up  till 
a  very  recent  date."  It  thus  appears  that  mounds  of  various 
kinds  have  been  erected  in  almost  all  the  inhabited  parts  of 
Europe  and  Asia  ;  that  they  have  been  the  work  of  different  peo- 
ples at  divers  times,  during  a  long  succession  of  ages,  and  that 
many  of  them  are  the  most  ancient  monuments  in  the  Old  World. 


CHAPTER    X. 

THE  TUMULI  OF  AMERICA. 

Peru — Religion — Deities — Huacas — Academies — Astronomy — Division  of  Time 
— Festivals — Sacrifices — Navigation  of  the  Peruvians — Of  the  Yucatans — 
Of  the  Floridians. 

IN  the  Old  World,  history  has  transmitted  to  posterity  the  origin 
of  some  of  the  tumuli  still  existing  there  after  the  lapse  of  nearly 
three  thousand  years ;  has  given  an  account  of  their  construction 
and  the  purposes  for  which  they  were  made ;  while  the  record  it 
has  given  of  the  religious  rites  that  prevailed  to  a  great  extent  in 
that  remote  period  has  thrown  much  light  on  other  tumuli  of 


76  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  X. 

which  there  has  been  transmitted  no  record.  But  the  New  World 
presents  not  advantages  to  the  same  extent  in  studying  the  monu- 
mental remains  of  its  early  inhabitants,  who  have  left  similar 
monuments  scattered  over  its  surface,  and  it  is  only  by  reference 
to  the  religion  and  customs  of  its  more  recent  inhabitants  that  a. 
knowledge  can  be  acquired  of  the  object  and  purposes  of  monu- 
ments of  a  later  date,  while  the  design  of  those  of  a  more  remote 
period  may  probably  remain  forever  in  oblivion,  with  the  human 
remains  they  once  contained  mouldered  to  the  dust  from  whence 
they  came. 

The  religious  sentiment  caused  the  huge  temples  and  pyramidal 
piles  of  Egypt,  and  the  beautiful  temples  hewn  in  the  granite 
mountains  of  India ;  and  a  similar  sentiment  probably  produced 
many  of  the  rude  monuments  scattered  over  the  New  World,  the 
tumuli  of  extinct  and  forgotten  nations.  In  the  many  ages  that 
America  has  been  populated  the  various  nations  that  have  risen 
and  perished,  impelled  by  that  motive  peculiar  to  man,  have  en- 
deavored to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  their  existence  by  leaving 
their  monuments  to  posterity,  and  thus  have  these  tumuli  and 
earthworks  increased,  until  now  they  are  found  from  Canada  to 
Chili. 

The  continents  of  America  have,  like  those  of  the  Old  World, 
been  occupied  for  ages.  Nations  and  empires  have  risen  and 
perished,  and  been  succeeded  by  others  which,  like  those  that 
preceded  them,  have  had  their  day. 

Ciezar  de  Leon,  in  speaking  of  the  Indians  of  the  province  of 
Quinbaya,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  river  Magdalena,  says :  "  In 
ancient  times  these  Indians  were  not  natives  of  Quinbaya,  but 
they  invaded  the  country  many  times,  killing  the  inhabitants, 
who  could  not  have  been  few,  judging  from  the  remains  of  their 
works,  for  all  the  dense  canebrakes  seem  once  to  have  been  peopled 
and  tilled,  as  well  as  the  mountainous  parts,  where  there  are  trees 
as  big  around  as  two  bullocks.  From  these  facts  I  conjecture  that 
a  very  long  period  of  time  has  elapsed  since  the  Indians  first 
peopled  the  Indies." 

The  Mexicans,  like  the  barbarians  who  invaded  the  civilized 
portions  of  Europe  in  the  fourth  century,  and  the  Arabs  who  over- 
ran the  civilized  portions  of  western  Asia  and  of  northern  Africa 
in  the  eighth  and  several  succeeding  centuries,  found  the  people 
of  the  countries  which  they  invaded  more  civilized  than  them- 
selves. And  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  Asiatic  hordes  led  by 
Zenghis  Khan  and  his  successors  in  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  Peruvian  religion,  founded  upon  the  worship  of  the  Sun, 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  77 

was  introduced  by  the  Incas,  and  superseded  an  anterior  worship. 
Previous  to  this  reform  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Peru  professed 
a  creed  which,  however  grossly  disfigured  it  may  have  been  by 
puerile  superstitions,  still  attained  to  the  conception  of  a  Supreme 
Being,  Creator  of  all  that  exists.  The  Supreme  Being  was  called 
Con,  and  had  no  human  form  or  material  body,  but  was  an  in- 
visible and  omnipotent  spirit  which  inhabited  the  universe. 

The  human  race  giving  themselves  up  to  vice  and  crime,  and 
disregarding  the  respect  due  to  Con,  he  converted  their  fertile  re- 
gions into  sterile  deserts,  and  transformed  the  race  into  black  cats 
and  other  horrible  animals,  leaving  the  earth  uncultivated  and 
deserted,  until  Pachacamac,  son  of  Con,  taking  charge  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  world,  re-created  all  that  had  been  destroyed  by 
his  father. 

The  temple  of  Pachacamac,  the  immense  ruins  of  which  are 
still  visible  near  the  town  of  Lurin,  to  the  south  of  Lima,  was  the 
only  one  throughout  the  whole  country  that  was  dedicated  to  the 
Supreme  Being.  Pilgrims  from  distant  territories  directed  thither 
their  steps  to  present  their  offerings  and  worship  the  Deity.  They 
passed  with  safety  even  through  the  inimical  provinces  against 
which  they  had  declared  war,  without  other  conditions  than  that 
they  should  go  in  small  parties,  unarmed,  under  which  condition 
they  were  entertained  and  supported  in  all  parts  according  to  the 
mutual  convenience  of  all  parties.  According  to  vestiges  long 
prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  religion  of  the  Incas,  it  is  not 
probable  that  their  religion  was  limited  to  the  single  worship  of 
Con  and  Pachacamac. 

Upon  the  introduction  of  the  new  religion,  the  Inca,  its  founder, 
incorporated  it  with  cunning  artifice  into  the  prevailing  religion. 
He  declared  to  the  nations  that  the  Supreme  Divinity  was  the 
Sun,  without  whom  nothing  could  exist  in  the  world ;  that  the 
gods  Con  and  Pachacamac  were  sons  of  the  Sun ;  that  he  himself, 
the  revealer  of  this  doctrine,  was  a  brother  of  these  other,  and  conse- 
quently a  son  also  of  the  Sun ;  that  his  omnipotent  father  per- 
mitted him  to  incarnate  himself  and  descend  to  the  earth  in  order 
to  teach  men  the  arts  and  sciences  and  to  instruct  them  concern- 
ing the  will  of  the  Supreme  Being. 

The  Sun  was  the  Supreme  Being  whom  the  nation  respected  by 
erecting  sumptuous  temples  wherein  they  offered  most  exquisite 
and  costly  sacrifices ;  but  the  Inca,  as  a  son  of  the  god,  was  con- 
sidered as  a  personified  deity — the  immediate  organ  of  the  Su- 
preme Being,  and  entitled  to  the  same  homage  with  him.* 

*  How  much  like  the  vainglorious  sovereigns  of  the  Old  World,  who   would 


78  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  X. 

Faith  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul  was  one  of  the  fundamental 
ideas  among  the  Peruvian  nations.  They  believed  that  after  death 
the  just  went  to  a  beautiful  and  pleasant  place,  unknown  to  the 
living,  where  they  received  the  reward  of  their  virtue,  whilst  the 
souls  of  the  malicious  were  tormented  in  a  doleful  place  filled  with 
sorrow  and  fright ;  and  that  after  a  certain  time  they  should  re- 
turn to  their  bodies,  beginning  a  new  terrestrial  life,  continuing  the 
same  occupations  and  making  use  of  the  same  objects  which  they 
had  left  at  the  time  of  their  death.  This  belief  induced  them  to 
preserve  the  corpses  with  great  care,  and  to  bury  the  dead  with  a 
part  of  their  clothes,  their  utensils,  and  sometimes  with  their 
wealth. 

The  judge  of  the  human  race  was,  according  to  the  belief  of  the 
Peruvians,  Pachacamac  himself,  and  in  some  provinces,  Con  ;  they 
not  being  willing  to  believe  that  the  Sun  was  to  be  considered  as 
the  Supreme  Judge,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  made  by  the  Incas 
to  familiarize  them  with  this  opinion. 

The  Peruvians  also  believed  in  another  being,  of  evil  disposition, 
and  very  powerful,  animated  with  an  inextinguishable  hatred 
against  the  human  race  and  disposed  to  injure  them  as  much  as 
possible.  This  being  was  called  Supay,  and  in  some  places  was 
worshipped  in  temples  wherein  were  sacrificed  to  him  children  of 
tender  years.  But  Supay  was  subordinate  to  Pachacamac,  and 
none  could  injure  those  who  were  protected  by  this  beneficial  di- 
vinity, the  invocation  of  whose  name  alone  was  sufficient  to  ap- 
pease all  malignant  spirits. 

The  worship  of  Pachacamac  was  much  more  widely  extended 
than  historians  suppose,  and  we  may  safely  say  that  he  was  the 
deity  most  popular  and  most  respected  by  the  Peruvian  people 
generally  ;  whilst  the  religion  of  the  Sun  was  that  of  the  court,  a 
worship  which,  although  generally  recognized  by  the  Peruvians, 
never  succeeded  in  eradicating  their  faith  and  devotion  to  the 
primary  divinity. 

The  Peruvian  monarch,  Pachacutec,  knowing  how  imprudently 
it  would  be  to  openly  oppose  the  worship  of  Pachacamac,  suc- 
ceeded, with  his  customary  cunning,  in  indirectly  undermining  it, 
and  in  amalgamating  it  with  the  Sun  worship.  His  successors  fol- 
lowed the  same  policy,  and  in  a  few  years  the  worship  of  Pacha- 
camac fell  almost  into  disuse.  Finally  the  priests  constructed  a 
horrible  idol  of  wood  with  a  human  face,  thus  personifying  in  the 
most  profane  manner  the  divinity  who  for  so  many  centuries  had 

have  their  ignorant  and  superstitious  subjects  believe  that  they  rule  by  divine 
favor — in  fact,  that  they  are  the  vicegerents  and  representatives  of  the  deity  on 
earth. 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  79 

embodied  the  sublime  thought  and  ideal  conception  of  the  Peruvi- 
an worship  ;  and  they  abused  the  idol  to  subserve  their  purposes, 
causing  it  to  pronounce  feigned  oracles,  and  enriching  themselves 
at  the  cost  of  the  nation's  credulity.* 

As  sons  of  the  Supreme  Divinity  the  Inca  enjoyed,  even  after 
death,  general  adoration.  Their  obsequies  were  celebrated  with  the 
greatest  pomp  and  solemnity,  and  to  their  corpses  were  offered 
numerous  sacrifices.  The  deceased  monarch  was  embalmed  with 
so  much  dexterity  and  skill  that  he  seemed  to  be  living,  and  in 
this  state  he  was  preserved  entire  centuries.  His  intestines,  depos- 
ited in  vases  of  gold,  were  preserved  in  the  magnificent  temple  of 
Tambo,  four  leagues  from  Cuzco,  while  the  body  was  seated  upon 
a  species  of  throne,  in  a  natural  position,  before  the  figure  'of  the 
Sun,  in  the  principal  temple  of  the  capital. 

The  body  of  Huayna-Capac  was  so  well  preserved  that  it  seemed 
to  be  alive.  The  eyes  were  made  of  very  thin  gold,  and  so  well 
formed  that  they  seemed  natural,  and  the  whole  body  was  pre- 
pared with  a  species  of  bitumen.  There  appeared  on  the  head  the 
scar  of  a  stone  thrown  in  war,  and  the  long  hair  was  visible,  very 
hoary  and  perfect.  He  had  died  about  eighty  years  previous.  This 
mummy,  with  several  others  of  the  Incas,  was  brought  from 
Cuzco  to  Lima.  The  bodies  weighed  so  little  that  any  Indian 
might  carry  them  in  his  arms  or  on  his  shoulders  from  house  to 
house  of  the  gentlemen  who  wished  to  see  them.  They  carried 
them  covered  with  white  cloths  through  the  streets  and  squares  of 
Lima,  surrounded  by  the  Indians  worshipping  them  with  tears  and 
groans,  and  many  Spaniards  lifted  their  caps  as  they  passed,  be- 
cause they  were  the  bodies  of  kings.  Finally  the  mortal  remains 
of  these  powerful  and  wise  monarchs  were  interred  in  a  court  of 
the  Hospital  of  Saint  Andrew,  in  Lima.f 

The  Peruvian  deities  are  divided  into  deities  of  this  world,  and 
these  again  into  stella  and  terrestrial;  into  historical  deities,  deities 
of  the  nation,  or  of  the  people ;  finally  into  deities  of  families  or  in- 
dividuals, similar  to  the  lares  and  penates  of  the  Romans. 

The   Sun    (Inti)    was    the    god    par    excellence,   the   protecting 

*  "I  am  the  Lord  thy  God.  Thou  shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me.  Thou 
shalt  not  make  unto  thee  any  graven  image,  or  any  likeness  of  any  thing  that  is  in 
heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under  the 
earth.  Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  to  them  nor  serve  them."  Explicit  as  this  is, 
yet  there  are  persons  who  bow  down  to  images  and  pictures.  The  idea  of  a  supreme 
omnipotent  being  is  blended  with  the  basest  idolatry  and  superstition  by  both 
civilized  and  savage  peoples. 

f  "  Peruvian  Antiquities  "  by  Rivero,  translated  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hawks. 


80  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.   X. 

deity,  he  who  presided  over  the  destinies  of  men,  the  origin  of  the 
royal  family.  To  the  Sun  belonged  the  magnificent  temples  in  all 
the  cities,  and  in  almost  all  the  villages  of  the  vast  Peruvian  terri- 
tory. Numerous  were  the  priests  destined  for  the  service  of  the  god, 
and  by  day,  as  well  as  by  night,  a  certain  number  of  the  attend- 
ants were  obliged  to  watch  in  turn  in  the  temple,  and  to  fulfil  the 
prescribed  offices.  In  some  parts  of  the  empire  the  priests  main- 
tained a  perpetual  celibacy ;  in  others  they  were  married,  but 
while  the  fast  lasted  they  abstained  from  all  personal  contact  with 
their  wives.  The  chief  priest,  Huillca-  Uina,  who  was  an  Inca  of 
the  royal  blood,  and  belonged  to  the  sacerdotal  society  of  the  Sun, 
possessed  the  government  of  the  other  priests  of  the  empire.  He 
resided  in  Cuzco,  and  extracted  auguries  from  the  flight  of  birds 
and  from  the  entrails  of  victims,  in  the  presence  of  the  Inca.  At 
the  solemn  feasts  the  King  himself  in  person  was  the  high  priest, 
for  which  purpose  he  was  initiated  and  consecrated  in  all  the 
mysteries  of  religion. 

There  were  virgins  dedicated  to  the  Surf,  considered  as  wives  of 
the  god.  These  lived  in  cloisters  or  convents,  in  the  greatest  re- 
tirement. The  most  celebrated  was  Acllahuasi,  in  Cuzco,  or  house 
of  the  select  ones,  who  were  made  such  either  from  their  lineage 
or  for  their  beauty.  This  contained  more  than  one  thousand  vir- 
gins. Those  who  could  aspire  to  admittance  within  this  sacred 
college  were  the  maidens  of  royal  blood.  They  were  obliged  to 
pronounce  the  vow  of  perpetual  virginity  and  seclusion  without 
the  slightest  connection  with  the  world,  or  even  with  their 
parents.  Not  even  the  Peruvian  monarch  dared  to  tread  within 
the  precincts  of  the  monastery,  a  privilege  which  was  only,  by 
reason  of  their  sex,  enjoyed  by  the  queen  and  her  daughters. 

The  wife  of  the  Inca  who  was  convicted  of  adultery  was  subject 
to  the  same  penalty  as  the  virgin  of  the  Sun  who  proved  false  to 
her  vows.  If  she  swore  that  the  Sun  himself  was  the  author  of 
her  pregnancy,  she  was  allowed  to  live  until  the  time  was  accom- 
plished for  her  delivery,  arid  was  then  buried  alive.*  The  fruit 
of  her  union  with  the  deity  was  reserved  for  the  priesthood,  or 
was  destined  to  form  a  part  of  the  sacred  society  of  the  virgins  of 
the  Sun,  according  to  the  sex. 

*  The  same  penalty  was  inflicted  on  a  vestal  virgin  for  a  like  violation  of  her 
vow.  Romulus  and  Remus  were  twins  of  a  vestal  virgin,  and  Mars  was  their 
father.  It  is  probable  that  this  Mars  was  some  distinguished  man  who  deceived 
the  virgin.  A  case  of  this  kind  is  related  by  Pausanius,  and  the  destruction  of  the 
temple  of  Serapis,  at  Alexandria,  was  occasioned  by  the  detection  of  a  similar 
fraud  of  the  priest. 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  81 

The  Moon,  quilla,  considered  as  the  sister  and  wife  of  the  Sun, 
was  an  object  of  profound  respect,  but  the  worship  given  to  it  was 
much  more  limited  than  that  given  to  the  Sun.  Venus,  Chasque 
Coyllur,  was  worshipped  as  a  page  of  the  Sun.  Among  the  ele- 
mental deities  were  air,  fire,  lightning  and  thunder,  and  the  rain- 
bow. The  terrestrial  deities  were  very  numerous,  and  the  Peru- 
vians sacrificed  to  all  of  them.  They  were  the  earth,  hills, 
mountains,  rocks  of  uncommon  shape,  the  sea,  rivers,  lakes,  etc. 
The  chief  of  the  historical  deities,  and  one  intimately  connected 
with  Peruvian  history,  was  Viracocha,  who  more  than  once  ap- 
peared in  human  form  to  the  Inca  of  the  same  name,  saying  he 
was  the  son  of  the  Sun  and  brother  of  Manco  Capac. 

The  Incas  enjoyed,  even  after  death,  general  adoration.  Besides 
the  Incas,  the  Peruvians  also  adored  heroes  in  some  of  the  prov- 
inces, and  it  seems  that  this  worship  originated  before  the  Incas 
conquered  their  territories.  The  greater  number  of  historical  gods 
were  Huacas,  or  gods  of  towns  or  provinces,  of  which  there 
were  made  figures  of  stone  or  wood. 

The  most  interesting  of  the  Huacas  was  found  about  two  leagues 
from  the  town  of  Hilavi,  on  an  elevated  summit,  where  were  found 
the  sepulchres  of  Indians,  of  rich  sculptured  stone  chambers. 
There  was  here  a  stone  statue  three  times  the  height  of  a  man  and 
of  magnificently  sculptured  stone,  with  two  monstrous  figures  be- 
sides— one  of  a  man  who  looked  towards  the  west,  and  the  other, 
with  the  face  of  a  woman,  on  the  same  stone,  at  the  back  of  the 
former,  who  faced  the  east.  On  both  might  be  seen  serpents, 
which  were  twined  from  the  feet  to  the  head,  and  about  the  soles 
of  the  feet  there  were  gathered  other  reptiles  and  toads.  In  front 
of  each  one  of  their  idols  was  a  square  stone  of  a  span  and  a  half 
in  height,  which  seemed  to  serve  as  an  altar.  In  order  to  break 
in  pieces  so  valuable  a  monument,  a  Jesuit  employed  more  than 
thirty  persons  for  three  days. 

The  Huaca-Rimic,  on  the  river  Rimic,  was  also  greatly  cele- 
brated. It  had  a  human  figure,  and  was  found  in  a  magnificent 
temple,  in  which  oracular  responses  were  given  to  all  questions 
put  by  the  priests.  Not  only  throughout  the  nation  of  the  Yuncas, 
who  occupied  this  valley  (of  Rimic),  but  through  the  entire  sur- 
rounding country  was  this  idol  worshipped,  and  even  from  distant 
provinces  deputies  came  with  questions  and  offerings.  From  Li- 
matambo  to  Maranga  there  exists  a  great  number  of  Huacas, 
some  being  more  than  fifty  yards  in  length  and  about  fifteen  in 
height. 

Individual  and  family  deities  were  innumerable.  Each  house 

6 


82  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  X. 

and  individual  possessed  its  characteristic  and  tutelar  divinity. 
Among  the  former  were  the  so-called  Malquis,  or  manaos,  which 
were  the  entire  bodies  of  the  ancestors  reduced  to  a  mummy 
or  skeleton  state,  which  the  descendants  piously  preserved 
in  the  tombs,  arranged  in  a  manner  that  they  might  easily 
see  them  and  offer  them  sacrifices.  At  the  same  time  they  gave 
them  food  and  drink,  for  which  they  interred  with  them  vessels 
and  dishes,  which  they  filled  from  time  to  time  with  food.  They 
also  placed  at  the  side  of  the  departed,  in  the  sepulchres,  arms, 
utensils  and  other  spoils  which  they  had  used  in  life.  Thus,  if 
the  deceased  were  a  warrior,  they  interred  with  him  implements 
of  war ;  if  he  were  a  workman,  they  buried  with  him  signs  of  his 
trade;  if  a  woman,  they  buried  spindles,  shuttles,  cotton  and  wool. 

Under,  the  collective  name  of  Conopa,  or  Chanca,  the  Peruvians 
designated  all  the  minor  deities  worshipped  by  single  families  and 
individuals,  excepting  those  already  mentioned  in  fields  and 
canals.  They  counted  several  classes  of  them,  although  they  ap- 
plied the  names  above  mentioned  particularly  to  individuals. 
Every  small  stone  or  piece  of  wood  of  singular  form  was  wor- 
shipped as  a  Conopa.  These  private  deities  were  buried  with 
their  owners,  and  generally  hung  to  the  neck  of  the  dead.  Some- 
times they  are  found  made  of  metal,  like  a  human  figure,  or  with 
an  allusion  to  some  event  in  the  life  of  the  individual  who  wor- 
shipped them. 

The  most  esteemed  Conopas  were  the  Bozoar  stone  (quicit),  and 
the  small  crystals  of  quartz  rock  (quispi  or  Llaca).  Many  and 
various  Conopas  are  copied  from  the  Llamas,  Alpacas,  Vicunas, 
and  Huanacas,  and  these  idols  are  made  of  basalt,  of  black  stone, 
of  porphyry,  carbonate  of  lime,  granite,  clay,  silver,  and  even  of 
gold.  And  among  the  Conopas  was  found  the  representation  of  a 
sheep  in  silver,  so  well  soldered  that  with  difficulty  only  could  the 
union  of  the  different  parts  be  perceived.  They  also  worshipped 
as  Conopas  deer,  monkeys,  mountain  cats,  parrots,  lizards,  fishes, 
etc.,  which  they  made  of  clay  and  hollowed  out  in  the  form  of 
small  vessels,  which  they  interred  with  the  dead,  for  the  purpose 
of  pouring  into  them  the  chicha  of  sacrifice.* 

*  Nothing  so  degrades  a  people  as  idolatry.  The  more  ignorant  and  supersti- 
tious they  are,  the  more  degraded  they  become  ;  the  more  degraded  they  are,  the 
more  subject  they  are  to  the  influences  of  idolatry  and  superstition ;  and  this  is 
the  whole  secret  of  the  power  of  the  priesthood  of  antiquity  and  of  the  hierarchical 
governments  that  then  prevailed.  Of  course  there  is  nothing  of  this  kind  in 
these  enlightened  days  of  modern  times.  Knowledge  is  light ;  ignorance  is 
darkness.  They  cannot  exist  together. 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  83 

There  were  in  Cuzco  and  other  principal  cities  academies  under 
the  superintendence  or  direction  of  the  Incas,  to  instruct  the 
young  disciples  in  all  military  and  knightly  exercises,  as  well 
theoretical  as  practical,  and  from  them  came  the  chiefs  of  the 
army.  The  representatives  of  the  other  sciences  did  not  belong 
to  the  priesthood,  but  formed  the  separate  class  of  the  Amautas,  or 
sages,  who  lived  in  these  establishments  of  learning,  Zachahuasi. 
The  knowledge  of  the  Amautas  in  mathematical  science  was  al- 
most nothing.  They  had  made  but  small  progress  in  astronomy. 
The  methods  by  which  they  discovered  the  exact  time  of  the 
solstices  is  described  by  Garcelossa : 

They  determined  them  by  eight  towers  which  they  had  erected 
to  the  east,  and  as  many  to  the  west,  of  the  city  of  Cuzco,  being 
ranked  four  and  four  ,in  several  positions,  the  two  in  the  middle 
being  higher  than  the  other  two  at  each  end,  and  were  built  much 
in  the  form  of  the  watch-towers  in  Spain.  When  the  sun  came  to 
rise  exactly  opposite  to  four  of  these  towers  which  were  to  the  east 
of  the  city,  and  to  set  just  against  those  in  the  west,  it  had  then 
the  summer  solstice ;  and  in  like  manner,  when  it  came  to  rise  and 
set  just  with  the  other  four  towers  on  each  side  of  the  city,  it  was 
the  winter  solstice. 

To  denote  the  precise  day  of  the  equinoctial  they  had  erected 
pillars  of  the  finest  marble  in  the  open  area  in  front  of  the  Temple 
of  the  Sun,  which,  when  the  sun  came  near  the  time,  the  priests 
daily  watched  and  attended  to  observe  what  shadow  the  pillar 
cast ;  and,  to  make  it  more  exact,  they  fixed  on  them  a  gnomon 
like  the  pin  of  a  dial,  so  that  as  soon  as  the  sun,  at  its  rising,  came 
to  dart  a  direct  shadow  by  it,  and  that  at  its  height,  or  mid-day, 
the  pillar  made  no  shadow,  they  concluded  that  the  sun  had  then 
entered  the  equinoctial  line.  The  Incas  and  Amautas,  having 
observed  that  when  the  sun  came  to  the  equinoctial  these  pillars 
made  little  shadow  at  mid-day,  and  that  those  in  the  city  of  Quito 
and  those  of  the  same  degree  to  the  sea-coast  made  none  at  all, 
because  the  sun  is  there  perpendicularly  over  them,  they  con- 
cluded that  the  position  of  those  countries  was  more  agreeable 
and  pleasing  to  the  Sun  than  those  in  which  in  an  oblique  man- 
ner he  darted  his  rays. 

The  Amautas  noted  the  movements  of  Venus,  the  only  planet 
which  attracted  their  attention,  and  which  they  venerated  as  a 
page  of  the  Sun.  They  knew  some  few  of  the  constellations. 
They  were  frightened  at  the  eclipse  of  the  sun  and  moon,  partic- 
ularly at  those  of  the  latter  planet,  believing  that  it  threatened  to 
burst  or  explode  upon  the  earth,  and  to  avoid  the  danger  they 


84  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  X. 

broke  forth  in  frightful  shouting,  endeavoring  to  make  all  the 
noise  possible,  from  the  time  the  eclipse  began,  with  instruments 
of  all  descriptions ;  also  beating  dogs  to  make  them  howl  and 
augment  the  general  confusion. 

The  entire  lunation  they  divided  into  four  equal  quarters,  be- 
ginning always  with  the  first  day  of  the  new  moon.  Thus  the  first 
section  or  period  lasted  until  the  day  of  the  fourth  crescent ;  the 
second  until  the  apposition ;  the  third  until  the  fourth  decline ; 
and  the  fourth  until  the  conjunction.  They  counted  the  months 
by  moons,  but  the  year  from  one  winter  solstice  to  another ;  this 
they  subdivided  into  twelve  equal  parts,  forming  thus  a  solar 
year.  The  time  which  remained  from  the  end  of  the  lunar  year 
until  the  completion  of  the  solar  was  called  puchuc-quilla,  or  resi- 
due of  the  moon,  and  was  devoted  to  leisure.  They  distributed 
the  solar  year  into  four  seasons :  spring,  from  the  vernal  equinox 
to  the  summer  solstice;  the  summer,  from  the  summer  solstice  to 
the  autumnal  equinox ;  the  autumn,  from  the  autumnal  equinox 
to  the  winter  solstice ;  and  the  winter,  from  the  winter  solstice  to 
the  vernal  equinox.  At  each  one  of  the  four  seasons  they  cele- 
brated a  general  solemn  feast. 

The  Peruvians  did  not  divide  the  day  into  hours,  and  could  not 
keep  an  exact  astronomical  account. 

The  year  was  divided  into  twelve  months,  and  began,  accord- 
ing to  some  authors,  in  the  summer  solstice,  at  the  end  of  June ; 
according  to  others,  in  the  winter  solstice,  at  the  end  of  December. 
It  is  certain  that  in  Cuzco  it  began  with  this  latter  month,  and  in 
Quito,  according  to  the  laws  of  the  Inca,  Huana-Capac,  in  the 
summer  solstice. 

I  will  here  interrupt  the  account  of  Peruvian  astronomy,  taken 
from  "Peruvian  Antiquities"  by  Tschudi  and  Rivero,  to  insert  the 
following  from  "Antiquities  of  the  West:"  "There  is  an  opinion 
among  the  Seneca  nation  of  the  Iroquois  confederacy,  living  at 
this  day*  in  the  region  south  of  the  Lake  Ontario,  that  eclipses  of  the 
sun  and  moon  are  caused  by  a  Manitau,  or  bad  spirit,  who  mis- 
chievously intercepts  the  light  intended  to  be  shed  upon  the  earth 
and  its  inhabitants.  Upon  such  occasions  the  greatest  solicitude 
exists.  All  the  individuals  of  the  tribe  feel  a  strong  desire  to 
drive  away  the  demon,  and  to  remove  thereby  the  impediment  to 
the  transmission  of  luminous  rays.  For  this  purpose  they  go 
forth,  and  by  crying,  shouting,  drumming  and  the  firing  of  guns, 
endeavor  to  frighten  him.  They  never  fail  in  their  object,  for  by 

*  "Antiquities  of  the  West"  was  finished  January,  1820. 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  85 

courage  and  perseverance  they  infallibly  drive  him  off.  His 
retreat  is  succeeded  by  a  return  of  the  obstructed  light. 

"  Something  of  the  same  kind  is  practiced  by  the  Chippewas,  at 
this  time,  when  an  eclipse  happens.  The  belief  among  them  is 
that  there  is  a  battle  between  the  sun  and  moon,  which  intercepts 
the  light.  Their  great  object,  therefore,  is  to  stop  the  fighting  and 
separate  the  combatants.  They  think  these  ends  can  be  accom- 
plished by  withdrawing  the  attention  of  the  contending  parties 
from  each  other,  and  diverting  it  to  the  Chippewas  themselves. 
They  accordingly  fill  the  air  with  noise  and  outcry.  Such  sounds 
are  sure  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  warring  powers.  Their 
philosophers  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  the  strife  never 
lasted  long  after  their  clamor  and  noisy  operations  had  begun. 
Being  thus  induced  to  be  peaceful,  the  sun  and  moon  separate, 
and  light  is  restored  to  the  Chippewas. 

"  Now  it  is  reported,  on  the  authority  of  one  of  the  Jesuit  fathers 
of  the  French  mission  to  India,  that  a  certain  tribe  or  people  whom 
he  visited  there  ascribed  eclipses  to  the  presence  of  a  great  dragon. 
This  creature,  by  the  interposition  of  his  huge  body,  obstructs  the 
passage  of  the  light  to  our  world.  They  were  persuaded  that 
they  could  drive  him  away  by  all  the  terrific  sounds  they  could 
produce.  These  were  always  successful.  The  dragon  retired  in 
alarm  and  the  eclipse  immediately  terminated." 

In  each  month  of  the  year  the  Peruvians  held  feasts,  but  the 
principal  ones  related  to  the  Sun,  and  they  celebrated  the  sol- 
stices and  the  equinoxes.  The  most  solemn  of  all  was  the  sum- 
mer solstice. 

This  feast  was  in  token  of  gratitude  and  thankfulness  for  the 
benefits  which  the  nation  enjoyed,  and  was  solemnized  through- 
out all  the  countries  governed  by  the  Incas.  There  were  assem- 
bled at  it  the  chiefs  and  princes  of  the  empire ;  those  who  could 
not  attend  sent  their  sons  or  relatives,  with  the  most  noble  lords 
of  the  territory.  The  multitude  was  innumerable.  From  the 
neighboring  provinces  women  were  sent  to  dress  the  food  of  the 
multitudes,  and  chiefly  to  knead  a  species  of  cake  of  boiled  corn, 
called  zancu,  and  eaten  only  at  the  solemn  feasts.  The  feast  was 
preceded  by  three  days  of  religious  fasting,  during  which  time 
the  only  food  consisted  of  a  little  white  raw  corn  and  a  certain 
herb  called  chucan.  At  the  same  time  no  fire  was  permitted  to 
be  kindled  in  any  house.  The  first  sacrifice  consisted  generally  of 
a  young  black  llama.  The  priest  opened  with  the  sacred  knife  the 
left  side  and  tore  out  the  heart,  with  the  lungs  and  throat,  and 
found  an  omen  for  the  future. 


86  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  X. 

The  augural  holocaust  over,  the  priest  made  a  general  sacrifice 
to  the  Sun,  which  consisted  of  a  large  number  of  llamas  and  al- 
pacas, which  they  beheaded,  offering  their  hearts  to  the  Sun,  and 
burning  the  entrails  of  the  victims  until  they  were  reduced  to 
ashes,  and  the  flesh  was  roasted  and  dressed,  with  other  food. 

The  second  principal  feast,  called  Situa,  was  solemnized  at 
the  autumnal  equinox,  and  was  preceded  by  a  feast,  which  took 
place  the  day  of  the  new  moon  before  the  fast.  The  night  be- 
fore, they  prepared  in  all  the  houses  zancus,  a  portion  of  which  was 
mixed  with  human  blood,  taken  from  children  five  or  six  years 
old  by  means  of  a  sharp-pointed  stone.  A  few  hours  before  break- 
fast all  those  who  had  fasted  washed  themselves  and  took  a  little  of 
the  potion,  mixed  with  blood,  rubbing  with  it  their  whole  body, 
in  order  to  dissipate  all  infirmities.  With  the  same  material  the 
head  of  each  house  rubbed  the  thresholds,  leaving  a  part  stuck 
there,  in  commemoration.  In  the  royal  palace  the  oldest  uncle  of 
the  king  performed  this  ceremony,  and  in  the  temples  of  the  Sun 
the  High  Priest,  and  other  priests,  deputed  for  that  purpose,  in  the 
other  sacred  houses. 

Upon  the  rising  of  the  sun  the  people  assembled  in  the  desig- 
nated squares  to  adore  the  deity,  entreating  it  to  expel  all  evils 
and  infirmities.  Then,  at  an  hour  appointed,  on  the  morrow, 
there  came  out  of  the  fortress  Sacsahuaman  (at  Cuzco)  an  Inca  as 
a  messenger  of  the  Sun,  richly  arrayed,  his  mantle  girded  to  his 
body,  a  lance,  with  a  little  banner  of  feathers,  in  his  hand,  and  ran 
until  he  reached  the  middle  of  the  principal  square,  where  he  was 
waited  for  by  four  Incas  similarly  clothed.  Upon  reaching  them 
he  touched  their  lances  with  his,  telling  them  that  the  Sun  com- 
manded that  they  should  expel  from  the  city  and  its  environs  all 
ills  and  infirmities.  At  the  same  time  the  four  Incas  departed 
for  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe  by  the  four  royal  roads  which 
proceeded  from  this  square,  and  ran  a  quarter  of  a  league  to  a  spot 
where  others  were  waiting  for  them,  already  prepared  to  continue 
the  service ;  and  in  this  manner,  their  places  re-occupied  by  fresh 
substitutes,  they  traversed  the  road  for  six  leagues  beyond  the 
city  in  the  four  principal  directions,  the  Incas  keeping  their  lances 
at  rest,  as  if  to  put  an  end  to  all  the  evils  which  they  pretended  to 
drive  away.  While  they  were  thus  running,  the  whole  population 
of  the  city  and  neighboring  places  came  out  to  the  doors  of  their 
houses,  shaking,  with  loud  exclamations  and  outcries,  their  clothes, 
and  rubbing  their  bodies  with  their  hands,  in  token  that  they  wished 
to  tear  out  all  the  evils  and  give  them  to  the  Incas  to  be  destroyed. 
At  night,  after  the  feast,  the  Indians  sallied  out  with  torches  bound 


CHAP.  X.]  OF    AMERICA.  87 

around  with  straw  and  fastened  by  coarse  ropes,  and  ran,  shaking 
them,  through  the  streets  until  they  were  out  of  the  city,  extin- 
guishing them  by  throwing  them  into  the  rivulets,  pretending 
thus  to  destroy  all  nocturnal  evils. 

April. — In  this  month  began  the  corn  harvest.  Agrihuay,  the 
Peruvian  name  for  this  month,  signifies  an  ear  of  corn  with  grains 
of  different  colors.  There  were  premiums  prepared  for  those  who 
met  with  certain  colors  in  the  grains  of  full  ears.  He  who  re- 
ceived the  premium  was  celebrated  throughout  the  nation. 

May,  or  Aymuray. — Thus  called  because  of  the  conveying  of  the 
corn  to  the  public  depositories  and  granaries,  which  took  place 
in  this  month. 

March  2d  occurred  the  second  principal  feast  of  the  year, 
preceded  by  three  days  of  fasting,  and  it  was  the  memorable  feast 
of  the  renovation  of  the  sacred  fire.  On  the  day  of  the  equinox 
the  Inca  waited,  accompanied  by  all  the  priests  and  chief  lords  of 
the  court,  at  the  entrance  of  the  chief  temple,  for  the  rising  of 
the  sun,  and  by  means  of  a  metallic  mirror  concentrated  its  first 
rays,  setting  fire  with  them  to  a  piece  of  sacred  cotton  picked  and 
prepared  for  the  purpose.  This  substance  was  carried  while 
burning  to  the  temple,  where  the  sacrifice  and  offerings  to  the 
Sun  were  made,  and  afterward  it  furnished  fire  to  all  the  houses. 
When  the  sun  was  obscured  they  obtained  fire  by  friction. 

October. — They  celebrated  the  solemn  feast  of  the  commemo- 
ration of  the  dead  with  tears,  lugubrious  songs  and  plaintive 
music,  and  it  was  customary  to  visit  the  sepulchres  of  relations 
and  friends,  and  leave  in  them  food  and  drink.  It  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  this  feast  was  celebrated  among  the  ancient  Peruvians 
at  the  same  period  and  on  the  same  day  that  the  Christians  sol- 
emnized the  commemoration  of  the  dead  (2d  of  November). 

In  November  took  place  the  feast  in  commemoration  of  the 
termination  of  the  year  and  the  end  of  seed-time.  A  solemn  day 
throughout  the  province  of  Cuzco  was  one  on  which  the  Incas  and 
all  the  cavaliers  of  the  court  went  out  to  the  field  and  pierced  the 
earth,  after  the  manner  of  the  Chinese  emperors,  with  an  instru- 
ment of  gold,  which  corresponded  to  the  plow.  The  magnates 
followed  the  example  of  the  Inca,  and  this  ceremony  inaugurated 
the  cultivation  of  the  earth. 

These  feasts  continually  followed  each  other,  so  that,  in  a  word, 
we  may  say  almost  half  the  year  was  passed  in  festivals.  The 
offerings  which  the  Indians  presented  to  the  Sun  and  other  deities 
consisted  of  that  which  was  produced  both  by  nature  and  by  art. 
The  most  ordinary  sacrifices  were  of  llamas,  principally  to  the 


88  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  X. 

Sun.  An  accurate  calculation  demonstrates  that  in  the  single  city 
of  Cuzco  there  were  beheaded  annually  some  two  hundred  thou- 
sand llamas  in  honor  of  the  Sun.  Alpacas,  Vicunas  and  Huana- 
cas  were  also  victims  offered  to  the  Sun  or  to  the  Huacas.  The 
fat  of  all  these  animals  formed  one  of  the  most  precious  objects 
of  the  offering. 

At  times  the  offering  consisted  of  human  victims.  The  quantity 
of  these  victims  reached  a  very  frightful  number,  and  consisted 
principally  of  children  of  tender  years,  which  they  sacrificed  to 
the  Sun,  and  it  was  no  unusual  thing  to  sacrifice  .two  hundred  at 
one  time.  At  the  death  of  an  Inca  or  a  principal  chief  they  in- 
terred with  the  deceased  his  servants  and  his  women.  It  is  said 
that  at  the  obsequies  of  Huana-Capac  more  than  one  thousand 
men  were  thus  sacrificed. 

Their  limited  knowledge  of  astronomy  did  not  permit  the  Peru- 
vians to  make  any  progress  in  navigation.  In  their  feeble  vessels, 
constructed  of  bamboo  logs,  a  balsa — a  raft  with  a  mast,  and  skins 
of  sea-wolves  or  mats  of  rushes  for  sails,  fitted  to  explore  the  coast 
of  their  territory  and  interior  lakes — they  did  not  dare  to  launch 
out  into  the  open  sea.  It  is  worthy  to  notice  that  which  is 
referred  'to  by  Signer  Castelneau,  that  the  mat  or  rush  sails  which 
they  made  use  of  in  the  lake  of  Titicaca  and  the  mode  of  taking 
them  in  is  identical  with  that  which  is  seen  upon  the  sepulchre  of 
Rameses  III.  in  Thebes.* 

*  When  Columbus,  in  the  year  1502,  arrived  at  the  island  of  Guanaja,  a  few 
leagues  from  the  coast  of  Honduras,  his  brother,  Bartholomew,  with  two 
launches  full  of  people,  landed  on  the  island,  and  while  on  shore  beheld  a  great 
canoe  arrive,  as  from  a  distant  and  important  voyage.  He  was  struck  with  its 
magnitude  and  contents.  It  was  eight  feet  wide  and  as  long  as  a  galley,  though 
formed  of  the  trunk  of  a  single  tree.  In  the  centre  was  a  kind  of  awning  or 
cabin  of  palm  leaves,  after  the  manner  of  those  in  the  gondolas  of  Venice,  and 
sufficiently  close  to  exclude  both  sun  and  rain.  Under  this  sat  a  cacique,  with 
his  wives  and  children.  Twenty-five  Indians  rowed  the  canoe,  and  it  was  filled 
with  all  kinds  of  articles  of  the  manufactured  and  natural  productions  of  the 
adjacent  countries.  It  is  supposed  that  this  bark  came  from  the  province  of 
Yucatan,  which  is  about  forty  leagues  from  this  island. 

Among  the  various  articles  in  this  canoe  he  saw  utensils  and  weapons  much 
superior  to  those,  similar,  which  he  had  already  found  among  the  natives.  There 
were  copper  hatchets  for  cutting  wood,  wooden  swords,  with  channels  on  each 
side  of  the  blade  in  which  sharp  flints  were  firmly  fixed  by  cords  made  of  the 
intestines  of  fishes.  There  were  copper  bells  and  other  articles  of  the  same 
metal,  together  with  a  rude  kind  of  crucible  in  which  to  melt  it ;  various  vessels 
and  utensils  neatly  formed  of  clay,  of  marble  and  of  hard  wood  ;  sheets  and 
mantles  of  cotton,  worked  and  dyed  of  various  colors  ;  great  quantities  of  cacao, 
a  fruit  which  the  natives  held  in  great  estimation,  using  it  both  as  food  and 


CHAP.  XI.]  OF    AMERICA.  89 


CHAPTER  XL 

Peru — Guaquas — Copper  Axes — Temples — Fortresses — Pucaras — Burials 
— Tombs — Mummies. 

THE  Peruvians  consecrated  works  to  posterity ;  the  fields  are 
full  of  them,  either  near  the  burgs  or  villages  or  on  the  plains,  on 
the  mountains,  and  on  the  hills.  They  liked,  as  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  to  be  buried  in  remarkable  places,  which  caused  the 
latter  to  build  pyramids,  in  the  middle  of  which  were  their  sepul- 
chres, where  was  deposited  their  corpse,  embalmed.  In  the  same 
manner  the  Indians,  after  having  carried  the  corpse  to  the  place 
where  it  was  to  repose,  without  interring  it,  they  surrounded  it 
with  many  stones  and  with  bricks,  with  which  they  built  for  it  a 

money.  There  was  also  a  beverage  extracted  from  Indian  corn,  resembling 
beer.  Their  provisions  consisted  of  corn-bread  and  roots  of  various  kinds. 
The  women  wore  mantles,  with  which  they  wrapped  themselves,  like  the  female 
Moors  of  Granada,  and  the  men  had  cloths  of  cotton  round  their  loins.  Both 
sexes  appeared  more  particular  about  these  coverings  and  to  have  a  quicker 
sense  of  modesty  than  any  Indians  Columbus  had  yet  discovered.  These  cir- 
cumstances, together  with  the  superiority  of  their  implements  and  manufactures, 
were  held  by  the  Admiral  as  indications  that  he  was  approaching  more  civilized 
nations.  They  informed  him  that  they  had  just  arrived  from  a  country  rich, 
cultivated  and  industrious,  situated  to  the  west. — IRVING. 

Bartram  gives  the  following  account  of  the  canoes  and  navigation  of  the 
Florida  Indians  in  1774  : 

"The  town  of  Talahasochte  is  on  the  banks  of  the  Little  San  Juan.  The 
river  at  the  town  is  about  a  hundred  yards  over,  and  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  deep. 
The  town  is  delightfully  situated  on  the  elevated  east  bank  of  the  river,  the 
ground  level  to  near  the  river,  when  it  descends  suddenly  to  the  water.  I  sup- 
pose the  perpendicular  elevation  of  the  ground  may  be  between  twenty  and  thirty 
feet. 

' '  These  Indians  have  large,  handsome  canoes,  which  they  form  out  of  the 
trunks  of  cypress  trees,  some  of  them  commodious  enough  to  accommodate 
twenty  or  thirty  warriors.  In  these  large  canoes  they  descend  the  river,  on 
trading  and  hunting  expeditions,  to  the  sea-coast,  neighboring  islands  and  keys, 
quite  to  the  point  of  Florida,  and  sometimes  across  the  gulf,  extending  their 
navigation  to  the  Bahama  islands  and  even  to  Cuba.  A  crew  of  these  adven- 
turers had  just  returned  from  Cuba,  but  a  few  days  before  our  arrival,  with  a 
cargo  of  spirituous  liquors,  coffee,  sugar  and  tobacco.  One  of  them  politely 
presented  me  with  a  choice  piece  of  tobacco,  which  he  told  me  he  had  received 
from  the  governor  of  Cuba. 

"They  deal  in  the  way  of  barter,  carrying  with  them  deer-skins,  furs,  dry 
fish,  beeswax,  honey,  bear's  oil  and  some  other  things." — BARTRAM,  222-226. 


90  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XI. 

kind  of  mausoleum,  on  which  those  who  were  the  dependants  of 
the  defunct  cast  so  great  a  quantity  of  earth  that  the  mausoleum 
was  changed  to  an  artificial  hill,  which  they  called  guaqua.  The 
figure  of  these  guaquas  is  not  exactly  pyramidal.  It  appears 
rather  that  these  people  had  in  view  to  imitate  nature  in  the  figure 
of  mountains  and  hills.  Their  ordinary  height  was  from  eight  to 
ten  toises,  which  are  twenty-three  ells.  Their  length  is  from 
twenty  to  twenty-six  toises,  or  forty-three  to  fifty-eight  ells,  by  a 
little  less  in  width.  There  are,  however,  some  much  greater.  Al- 
though they  find  these  sorts  of  monuments  in  all  the  country, 
there  is  nevertheless  a  greater  quantity  of  them  in  the  district  of 
the  village  of  Cay  amba,  the  plains  of  which  are  all  strewn  with 
them,  because  these  people  had  there  one  of  their  greatest  tem- 
ples, and  because  they  regarded  as  sanctified  all  the  fields  in  its 
vicinity.  It  is  wherefore  the  kings  and  caciques  of  Quito  wished 
to  be  buried  there,  and,  in  imitation  of  them,  also  the  caciques  of 
the  neighboring  villages. 

The  differences  which  are  remarked  in  the  size  of  these  monu- 
ments give  reason  to  believe  that  they  were  proportioned  to  the 
dignity,  rank  and  riches  of  the  persons  buried  in  them,  it  not 
being  doubtful  that  the  guaquas  of  the  caciques  of  the  first  order, 
who  had  under  their  rule  a  great  number  of  vassals  who  assisted 
at  their  funeral,  ought  naturally  all  contribute  to  make  for  him 
a  guaqua  more  considerable  than  that  of  a  private  person,  who 
had  but  his  family  and  friends  to  heap  dirt  over  him.  All  were 
buried  with  their  furniture  and  effects  for  their  use,  as  well  of  gold 
as  of  copper,  stones  and  clay.  In  the  most  of  these  guaquas  they 
find  but  the  skeleton  of  him  who  was  buried  there,  the  earthen 
vases  out  of  which  he  drank  chicha,  which  they  call  at  present 
guaguerres,  some  copper  axes,  mirrors  of  inca-stone,  and  other 
like  things  of  little  value,  although  curious  otherwise,  and  worthy 
of  attention  on  account  of  their  antiquity  and  having  been  made 
by  a  nation  so  little  cultivated. 

These  Indian  axes  of  copper  scarcely  differ  from  ours  in  their 
form.  It  appears  that  they  performed  the  most  of  their  work 
with  these  axes;  since,  if  they  are  not  the  only  trenchant  instru- 
ment they  had,  it  is  that  which  is  most  commonly  found  among 
them,  not  having  any  other  difference  except  that  some  are 
larger  than  others.  There  are  some  that  have  a  round  blade,  and 
more  or  less  long ;  some  are  crenated,  others  have  a  point  on  the 
side  opposite  to  the  blade,  with  a  twisted  handle  by  which  they 
handled  it.  The  most  general  material  of  these  instruments  is 
copper ;  however  there  are  some  of  Gallinace  stone,  or  of  another 


CHAP.  XI.]  OF   AMERICA.  91 

stone  much  like  flint,  although  not  so  hard  nor  so  neat.  Of 
this  stone  and  of  that  of  Gallinace  there  are  found  points  cut  on 
purpose,  of  which  they  make  use  instead  of  lancets.  These  are 
the  two  instruments,  and  perhaps  the  only  two,  which  have  been 
used  among  them.  If  they  have  had  others  of  them  it  is  sur- 
prising that  they  have  not  found  some  of  them  in  the  great  num- 
ber of  guaquas  where  they  have  excavated,  and  where  they  still 
excavate  everyday.* 

These  copper  axes  were  not  peculiar  to  Peru,  for  Diaz  in  relating 
the  voyage  in  which  Grijalva  discovered  Mexico,  says :  "As  soon 
as  the  inhabitants  of  Guacasualco  and  the  neighboring  districts 
had  learned  that  we  offered  our  goods  for  barter,  they  brought  us 
all  their  golden  ornaments  and  took  in  exchange  green  glass  beads, 
on  which  they  set  a  high  value.  Besides  ornaments  of  gold,  every 
Indian  had  with  him  a  copper  axe,  which  was  very  highly  pol- 
ished, with  the  handle  curiously  carved,  as  if  to  serve  equally  for 
an  ornament  as  for  the  field  of  battle.  At  first  we  thought  these 
axes  were  made  of  an  inferior  quality  of  gold  ;  we  therefore  com- 
menced taking  them  in  exchange,  and  in  the  space  of  two  days 
had  collected  more  than  six  hundred.  The  inhabitants  of  this 
district  were  all  very  much  pleased  with  us  and  embraced  us  at 
our  departure. 

"  We  set  sail  for  Cuba  and  arrived  there  in  the  space  of  forty 
days.  We  were  most  friendly  received  by  the  governor,  Diego 
Velasquez,  who  was  highly  delighted  with  the  additional  gold  we 
brought  him.  The  whole  amounted  to  twenty  thousand  pesos. 
Some  make  this  sum  greater,  some  less,  but  one  thing  is  certain  : 
the  crown  officials  only  took  the  fifths  of  the  last  mentioned  sum. 
When  they  were  about  to  take  this  also  of  the  Indian  axes,  which 
we  had  mistaken  for  gold,  they  grew  excessively  angry  on  finding 
them  to  be  merely  of  a  fine  species  of  copper.  Nor  did  this  cir- 
cumstance fail  to  produce  the  usual  laughter  at  the  expense  of 
our  trade  of  barter."f 

I  now  return  to  Uloa.  "After  having  given  the  description  of 
the  guaquas  of  these  idolatrous  peoples,  whose  usage  in  this  re- 
spect was  not  less  common  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  southern 
provinces  of  Peru,  I  pass  to  the  sumptuous  edifices  which  they 
have  built  to  serve  as  well  for  their  worship  as  to  lodge  their  sov- 
ereigns, and  serve  as  a  barrier  for  their  country.  And  although 

*  Uloa. 

f  See  note  page  88,  chap.  x.  It  thus  appears  that  copper  axes  were  used  in 
Peru,  Mexico,  and  Central  America.  It  is  probable  that  copper  was  the  first 
mineral  that  man  converted  to  domestic  use  ;  at  least  it  preceded  iron. 


92  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XI. 

these  edifices  have  been  less  magnificent  in  the  kingdom  of  Quito 
than  at  Cuzco,  which  was  the  capital  of  the  empire  and  the  resi- 
dence of  the  Incas,  there  nevertheless  still  remains  enough  of 
them  to  judge  of  the  grandeur  of  the  nation  and  of  its  inclination 
to  architecture,  as  if  they  had  wished  to  repair  by  sumptuous- 
ness  and  magnificence  what  they  lacked  on  the  side  of  science 
and  taste. 

There  is  still  seen  the  greater  part  of  one  of  these  works  in  the 
valley  of  Cayamba.  These  are  the  remains  of  a  temple  [8]  of  un- 
baked brick.  It  is  situated  on  an  elevated  land  of  the  same  vil- 
lage, which  forms  a  kind  of  hillock.  The  figure  of  the  edifice  is 
round,  about  eight  toises  in  diameter,  which  make  eighteen  or 
nineteen  ells,  by  about  sixty  ells  in  circumference.  There  remain 
of  this  edifice  but  the  plain  walls,  which  still  have  a  height  of 
about  two  toises  and  a  half,  or  five  to  six  ells,  by  four  or  five  feet 
in  thickness.  The  bricks  are  united  by  the  same  earth  of  which 
they  have  been  made,  and  the  whole  forms  a  wall  as  solid  as  if  it 
were  of  stone,  since  it  resists  the  injuries  of  the  weather,  to  which 
it  is  exposed  for  want  of  a  covering. 

Besides  the  tradition  by  which  they  know  that  this  edifice  was 
a  temple,  the  manner  in  which  it  is  constructed  does  not  permit 
a  doubt  of  it;  in  fact,  its  round  form,  without  any  partitions 
within,  shows  sufficiently  that  it  was  a  place  of  public  assembly, 
and  not  a  private  dwelling.  The  door  is  very  small,  and  gives 
occasion  to  believe  that  the  Inca  entered  here  on  foot  through  re- 
spect for  the  place,  although  into  their  palaces  and  everywhere  else 
they  entered  always  seated  on  a  chair.  Besides,  it  is  certain  that 
in  the  vicinity  of  Cayamba  they  had  one  of  their  largest,  principal 
temples.  It  seems  therefore  that  this  cannot  be  but  it. 

In  the  plain  which  extends  from  Latacunga  towards  the  north 
there  is  still  seen  the  walls  of  one  of  the  palaces  of  the  Incas  and 
Kings  of  Quito,  which  is  called  Callo,  [9]  a  name  which  still  re- 
mains to  it.  There  is  seen  in  them  neither  the  beauty  nor  the 
grandeur  of  the  edifices  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Romans  or  other 
peoples;  but  in  regard  to  the  limited  knowledge  of  the  Indians, 
and  in  comparison  with  their  other  habitations,  we  fail  not  to  see 
there  grandeur,  sumptuosity,  and  finally  something  that  announces 
the  majesty  of  the  monarchs  who  made  their  residence  there.  They 
enter  there  by  an  alley  five  or  six  toises  long,  which  leads  to  a  court 
around  which  are  three  great  saloons,  which  form  of  it  a  square, 
occupying  the  three  sides.  In  each  of  these  rooms  there  are  par- 
titions, and  behind  that  which  faces  the  entrance  there  are  divers 
little  recesses  which  appear  to  have  been  for  fuel,  except  one  which 


o 

K 

H 


CHAP.  XI.]  OF    AMERICA.  93 

served  as  a  menagerie,  for  we  still  see  the  partitions  where  each 
animal  was  kept.  The  ancient  work  is  a  little  disfigured,  although 
the  principal  parts  still  exist  as  they  were.  But  in  these  latter 
times  they  have  built  habitations  there,  and  have  changed  the 
arrangements  of  the  apartments  which  were  there. 

This  building  is  all  of  a  stone  which  resembles,  in  its  hardness, 
the  flint,  and  of  a  color  almost  black,  and  so  closely  joined  that 
the  point  of  a  knife  cannot  be  inserted  between  them,  their  joints 
being  as  fine  as  the  thinnest  leaf  of  paper,  and  only  appearing 
enough  to  judge  that  the  wall  is  not  entirely  of  one  piece.  It  is  seen 
that  neither  mortar  nor  cement  joins  them ;  that  outside  they  are  all 
convex,  but  at  the  entrance  of  the  doors  they  are  flat.  There  are 
seen  inequalities  not  only  in  the  ranges  of  stones  but  in  the  stones 
themselves,  and  it  is  what  renders  the  work  so  much  the  more 
singular,  for  a  small  stone  is  immediately  followed  by  one  large  and 
badly  squared,  and  that  on  top  is  nevertheless  accommodated  to 
the  inequalities  of  those  there,  and  even  to  the  projections  and 
irregularities  of  their  faces,  the  whole  so  perfect,  that  from  all  sides 
that  we  may  regard  them,  we  see  them  joined  with  the  same  ex- 
actness. These  walls  are  as  high  as  those  of  the  temple  of  Ca- 
yamba,  two  toises  and  a  half,  by  three  or  four  feet  of  thickness  ;  and 
the  doors  two  toises,  which  make  about  five  ells,  by  three  or  four 
feet  wide  below,  and  gradually  narrow  to  the  top  to  two  feet  and 
a  half.  They  gave  to  them  this  excessive  height  that  the  monarch 
might  pass  there  in  his  chair,  the  shafts  of  which  were  borne  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the'Indians ;  and  that  he  might  enter,  in  this  man- 
ner, his  apartment,  which  was  the  only  place  where  he  walked. 
We  are  ignorant  whether  this  palace  and  others  of  the  same  kind 
had  a  story  above  the  ground  floor,  and  in  what  manner  they  were 
covered.  Those  which  we  examined  either  had  no  roof  or  had 
been  covered  by  the  Spaniards ;  it  appears,  however,  certain  that 
their  roofs  were  flat,  and  made  of  wood,  supported  by  beams  which 
extended  from  one  wall  to  another.  There  were  no  marks  on  the 
principal  walls  that  could  cause  a  belief  that  they  had  sustained 
the  wood-work.  On  these  roofs,  thus  made  flat,  they  formed,  appar- 
ently, some  inclination  for  the  water  to  flow  off.  The  reason  why 
they  narrowed  their  doors  above  is,  that  they  had  not  any  knowl- 
edge of  the  use  of  arches  ;  and  that  they  were  obliged  to  make  the 
lintels  of  their  doors  of  a  single  stone  ;  and  as  they  had  not  any 
idea  of  a  vault,  nor  of  the  cutting  of  stones  which  served  as  a  key 
to  the  vault,  they  have  not  found  among  their  works  anything 
that  was  arched  or  made  like  an  arch. 

About  fifty  toises  from  this  palace,  towards  the  north,  on  which 


94  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XI. 

side  is  the  door,  there  is  a  hill,  called  Panecillo  de  Callo,  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  plain,  which  appears  quite  extraordinary ;  it  is  twenty-five 
or  thirty  toises,  or  fifty -eight  to  seventy  ells  high.  It  is  round, 
like  a  sugar-loaf,  so  even  on  all  sides  that  they  believed  it  artificial, 
and  so  much  the  more  so  as  the  bottom  of  its  slope  takes  on  all 
sides  perfectly  the  form  of  the  same  angle  with  the  earth  on  which 
it  is.  They  believe  that  it  is  a  monument  where  lies  some  Indian 
of  distinguished  rank,  and  this  opinion  is  so  much  the  more  proba- 
ble, as  they  were  much  inclined  to  raise  guaquas,  when  the  occa- 
sions presented  themselves  for  doing  so ;  they  add  also  that  the 
earth  has  been  taken  from  a  neighboring  ravine  through  which 
flows  a  little  river,  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  on  the  north  side,  but 
there  is  not  any  proof  of  that.  It  may  be,  also,  that  this  hill  has 
been  nothing  more  than  a  watch-tower  to  discover  what  was  pass- 
ing in  the  country,  and  to  be  able  to  put  the  prince  in  safety  at  the 
first  alarm  of  the  unexpected  attack  of  any  hostile  nation,  which 
happened  very  often. 

To  the  northeast  of  the  village  of  Atun  Cannar,  or  Great  Cannar, 
about  two  leagues  distant,  is  a  fortress  and  palace  of  the  Incas  [10]. 
It  is  the  most  complete,  and  the  greatest  and  best  built  of  all  this 
kingdom.  On  the  side  by  which  they  enter  it  there  passes  a  little 
river,  which  serves  it  for  a  fosse,  and  on  the  opposite  side  it  rises 
over  a  hill,  by  a  high  wall,  which,  as  well  as  the  slope  of  the  hill, 
makes  the  approach  to  it  difficult.  In  the  middle  is  a  tower-like 
building  of  oval  shape,  which  rises  from  the  interior  ground-plot 
of  the  edifice  to  the  height  of  one  and  a  half  or  two  toises,  but 
on  the  exterior  side  it  rises  above  the  hill  six  or  eight  toises.  In 
the  middle  of  the  tourillon  rises  a  square,  in  the  manner  of  a  don- 
jon, formed  by  four  walls,  the  angles  of  which  touch  the  circum- 
ference of  the  oval,  and  closes  the  passage  between  the  two.  In 
the  middle  of  the  donjon  there  are  two  small  separate  rooms,  into 
which  they  enter  by  a  door  opposite  the  space  which  separates 
them.  These  two  closets  are  kinds  of  sentry-boxes,  having  lit- 
tle windows,  through  which  the  sentinel  has  a  view  over  the 
country,  and  the  tourillon  itself  serves  as  a  guard-house. 

From  the  side  of  the  exterior  superfices  of  the  tourillon  the 
wall  of  the  fortress  extends  about  forty  toises  to  the  left  and  twenty- 
five  toises  to  the  right.  This  wall  then  turns  and  forms  divers 
irregular  angles  enclosing  a  spacious  plot  of  ground.  They  enter 
there  but  by  a  single  gate  opposite  the  tourillon,  and  very  near  the 
little  ravine  which  serves  as  a  bed  to  the  river.  From  this  door  they 
enter  a  narrow  alley  where  two  persons  can  hardly  pass  abreast, 
and  which  leads  directly  to  the  opposite  wall,  where  it  turns 


THE  PALACE  AND  CITADEL  OF  THE  INCAS. 


GROUND  PLAN. 


CHAP.  XI.]  OF    AMERICA.  95 

towards  the  tourillon,  remaining  still  the  same  width,  and  from 
there  continuing  to  incline  towards  the  ravine,  and  enlarging,  it 
forms  an  open  space  before  the  tourillon.  All  along  this  alley  they 
have  at  every  three  paces  formed  in  the  thickness  of  the  wall  of 
the  fortress  niches,  in  the  fashion  of  sentry-boxes,  and  in  the  inte- 
rior wall,  which  forms  the  alley,  two  doors,  which  serve  to  enter  two 
separate  apartments,  which  appear  to  have  served  as  barracks  for 
soldiers  of  the  garrison.  In  the  interior  enclosure,  to  the  left  of  the 
tourillon,  were  divers  apartments,  the  height,  doors  and  distribu- 
tion of  which  show  sufficiently  that  it  was  the  palace  of  the  prince. 
In  all  these  apartments  there  are  recesses,  in  the  manner  of  ar- 
moires,  the  same  as  the  two  closets  of  the  tourillon.  The  niches  of 
the  alley  and  the  donjon  have  stones  projecting  six  or  eight 
inches  by  three  or  four  in  diameter,  which  served,  probably,  to 
hang  the  arms  used  by  these  peoples. 

All  the  principal  wall,  which  is  on  the  slope  of  the  hill,  and 
which  descends  laterally  from  the  tourillon,  is  very  thick  and 
steep  on  the  outside,  with  a  platform  within,  and  a  parapet  of  or- 
dinary height.  In  order  to  ascend  to  the  platform  of  the  rampart, 
which  ranges  all  around,  there  is  but  one  stair,  near  the  tourillon. 
All  these  walls,  both  within  and  without,  are  of  a  stone  as  hard, 
as  polished  and  as  well  joined  as  those  of  Callo.  The  same  as  in  the 
palace,  all  the  apartments  are  uncovered,  and  without  floor  or 
mark  of  having  had  one. 

There  are  found  many  other  walls  and  ruins  in  all  this  country, 
as  well  on  the  plains  as  on  the  heights,  but  particularly  in  desert 
places,  without  any  vestige  of  a  town  or  other  habitable  place. 
They  are  all,  with  the  exception  of  the  three  of  which  we  have 
just  spoken,  of  sun-baked  brick  or  of  ordinary  stones  of  masonry, 
which  causes  a  belief  that  it  is  the  work  of  Indians  before  they 
had  submitted  to  the  Incas ;  whereas  the  walls  of  Callo  and  of 
the  two  fortresses  which  we  have  just  mentioned  were  built  since, 
and  after  the  best  ideas  that  these  princes  could  furnish  them. 
The  same  in  regard  to  the  government  and  policy,  introducing  the 
arts  with  their  laws  among  all  these  peoples  whom  they  reduced  to 
their  obedience.  The  Indians  give  to  all  these  remains  of  ancient 
edifices  the  name  Inca-Perca,  which  signifies  Inca  walls. 

The  people  had  another  manner  of  fortifying  themselves,  of 
which  there  remain  some  vestiges.  It  was  to  dig  a  trench  entirely 
around  a  mountain  steep  and  elevated,  not  quite  to  the  freezing 
degree,  but  nevertheless  very  high ;  and  to  make  there  three  or 
four  redans  at  some  distance  from  one  another,  within  which  they 
raised  a  small  wall,  breast  high,  to  shelter  themselves  from  the 


96  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XI. 

enemy,  and  repulse  him  with  less  danger  to  themselves.  They 
gave  to  these  fortifications  the  name  Pucaras.  At  the  bottom  of 
these  ditches  they  built  houses  of  unbaked  brick  or  of  stone, 
which  served  as  apartments  to  lodge  the  soldiers  destined  to  guard 
these  posts.  Fortifications  of  this  kind  were  so  common  that 
there  are  few  mountains  where  they  are  not  found  on  their  tops. 
On  Pambamarca  there  are  three  or  four  of  them,  one  of  which 
was  on  the  height  where  we  had  placed  the  signal  for  the  measure 
of  our  meridian,  and  we  found  some  upon  all  the  other  moun- 
tains. 

We  noticed  sometimes  that  the  first  ditch  was  so  spacious  in  its 
circumference  that  it  formed  a  circumvallation  of  more  than  a 
league ;  each  ditch  had  always,  everywhere,  the  same  depth  and 
the  same  width.  They  differed,  nevertheless,  some  in  regard  to 
the  others.  There  were  some  that  had  two  toises  in  width,  and 
others  that  were  less  than  one.  Besides,  they  were  always  made 
so  that  the  interior  border  was  higher  than  the  exterior  by  at  least 
three  or  four  feet,  so  as  to  have  more  advantage  over  the  assail- 
ants.* 

The  deceased  Incas  were  deposited  in  the  principal  part  of  the 
Temple  of  the  Sun,  in  Cuzco,  embalmed  and  covered  with  their 
regalia  dresses,  with  a  rich  sceptre  in  their  right  hand.  The 
Coya,  or  empress,  was  also  embalmed  and  deposited  in  that  part 
of  the  temple  dedicated  to  the  Moon. 

The  kings  of  Quito,  or  Scyris,  were  buried  in  a  very  large  sep- 
ulchre made  of  stones,  in  a  quadrangular  or  pyramidal  form, 
so  covered  with  pebbles  and  sand  that  it  formed  a  miniature  hill. 
The  door  faced  the  east,  was  closed  with  a  double  wall,  and  only 
opened  upon  the  death  of  one  of  them.  We  found  in  them  em- 
balmed corpses  arranged  in  order,  with  their  royal  insignia,  and 
the  treasures  which  the  monarch  had  ordered  should  be  interred 
with  him.  Over  each  one  of  them  was  found  a  cavity  or  niche 
where  was  found  a  hollow  figure  of  clay,  stone  or  metal,  within 
which  were  small  stones  of  divers  colors  and  shapes,  which  de- 
noted his  age,  the  years  and  months  of  his  reign. 

The  manner  of  burying  the  vassals  was  very  different,  and  varied 
in  each  province.  In  some  parts,  principally  at  the  south,  the 
cavaliers  of  royal  blood,  curacas  and  other  magnates,  were  de- 
posited in  large  vases  of  gold  and  silver,  in  the  form  of  urns,  her- 
metically sealed,  which  were  found  arranged  in  meadows,  woods 

*  "Voyage  Historique  de  L'Amerique  Meridionale, "  par  Don  George  Juan 
et  par  Don  Antoine  de  Ulloa. 


CHAP.  XI.]  OF    AMERICA.  97 

and  forests,  as  Gomera  relates.  We  regret  that  we  have  not  met 
with  a  single  one  of  these  urns,  which  were  found  in  such  abun- 
dance by  the  Spaniards,  and  of  which  we  know  nothing,  not  even 
the  shape.  Cieza  de  Leon  says:  "In  order  that  the  sepulchre 
should  be  made  magnificent  and  spacious  they  adorned  them 
with  pavements  and  vaults,  and  put  in  with  the  deceased  all  his 
chattels,  wives  and  servants,  and  a  large  quantity  of  food,  and 
numerous  pitchers  of  chicha,  or  wine,  such  as  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  using.  And  many  of  his  servants,  that  he  might  not  fail 
of  attendants  in  another  world,  made  holes  in  the  grounds  and 
fields  of  their  master  or  lord,  now  dead,  or  in  those  places  where 
he  most  enjoyed  and  feasted  himself,  and  there  they  buried 
themselves,  thinking  that  his  soul  would  pass  through  these 
places  and  take  them  along  for  his  future  use  or  service.  And  some 
of  his  women,  to  give  to  his  burial  more  importance  and  to  remain 
in  his  service,  would,  even  before  his  interment,  hang  themselves 
by  their  hair  and  so  kill  themselves." 

On  the  western  declivity  of  the  Cordilleras  they  used  sepul- 
chres in  the  form  of  ovens,  made  of  adobes,  and  in  the  Sierra 
they  were  constructed  of  stones,  square  or  oval,  or  in  the  form  of 
obelisks,  as  in  the  Punas  of  southern  Peru,  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
river  Chucana,  and  between  Pisacoma  and  Pichu-Pichu. 

A  large  number  of  the  tombs  are  enclosed  by  flat  stones  one  or  two 
yards  in  height.  The  sepulchres  built  of  adobe  or  stones,  always 
contained  the  corpses  of  the  principal  families.  The  plebeian 
families  were  arranged  in  rows,  or  formed  in  a  semicircle,  in  caves, 
fissures  of  rocks,  or  terraces  formed  of  rocks.  Sometimes  they 
were  buried  in  holes,  around  which  the  Indians  heaped  stones.* 

In  whatever  way  they  were  buried,  the  ancient  Peruvians  arranged 
the  corpses  in  a  drawn-up  posture,  the  face  turned  towards  the  west, 
with  provisions  of  chicha,  corn,  etc.,  deposited  in  round  earthen 
pots  and  other  vases,  that  they  might  find  food  to  sustain  them. 
In  the  walls  of  the  sepulchres  which  are  made  without  doors,  are 
found  certain  holes  and  conduits  which  lead  from  the  surface  out- 
side to  vases  within ;  into  these  they  empty  the  chicha  on  those 
fast-days  which  they  solemnize  in  honor  of  their  malquis. 

The  corpses  as  they  appear  in  the  sepulchres  are  found  envel- 
oped in  much  cloth,  and,  as  it  were,  bundled  up.  We  will  de- 
scribe them  as  we  found  them  in  more  than  fifty  mummies  which 
we  have  uncovered.  At  first  sight  we  distinguish  nothing  more 

*  "  Many  of  these  tumuli  are  similar  to  those  which  are  found  in  Asia  and  in 
North  America." 

7 


98  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XI. 

than  what  seems  a  coarse  statue,  seated,  in  which  nothing  is  visi- 
ble but  a  round  head,  two  knees,  and  two  feet  of  large  appearance ; 
a  strong  net  of  coarse  thread,  with  meshes  sufficiently  wide,  is 
bound  closely  over  a  coarse  mat  of  rushes,  in  which  the  corpse  is 
wrapped.  In  the  sepulchres  of  higher  Peru  are  found  mummies 
in  mats  of  totoza  (a  particular  species  of  rush  on  Lake  Titicaca), 
in  shape  very  similar  to  beehives,  with  a  square  aperture  at  the 
side  of  the  face.  On  removing  the  mat  you  find  a  large  roll  of 
cotton,  which  envelopes  the  whole  body  from  end  to  end,  and 
secures  two  reeds  or  canes  to  the  sides,  and  sometimes  also  a  stick 
across  the  shoulders.  After  removing  this  roll,  is  seen  a  cloth  of 
wool,  red  or  parti-colored,  which  completely  envelopes  the  mummy, 
at  the  lower  part  of  which  are  one  or  two  cloths  of  cotton,  like 
sheets,  fastened  firmly,  as  the  cloth  is,  around  the  corpse.  Under 
these  we  find  some  small  vases,  ornaments,  the  kualqui  with  the 
coca,  and,  in  the  greater  part  of  the  mummies,  a  canopa  of  stone, 
clay,  silver  or  gold,  hanging  from  the  neck.  The  internal  cover- 
ing is  a  cotton  cloth,  quite  fine,  probably  white  originally,  but 
tinged  with  a  reddish-yellow  by  time,  and  sewed  like  the  other 
coverings.  This  being  removed,  the  corpse  is  seen  naked,  only 
the  head  enveloped  in  two  or  three  rolls,  the  upper  one  of  which 
is  of  a  fine  web,  and  almost  always  with  threads  of  divers  colors. 
The  under  one  is  narrower  and  thicker,  sometimes  made  of 
rushes  only,  but  ordinarily  of  a  yellowish  cotton. 

The  position  of  the  corpse  is  squatting;  raising  the  knees  to 
the  chin,  the  arms  are  crossed  over  the  breast,  or  supporting  the 
head,  so  that  the  fists  touch  the  jaws.  The  hands  are  generally 
fastened,  and  in  most  of  the  mummies  there  is  a  coarse  rope 
passed  three  or  four  times  around  the  neck,  and  we  also  see  a 
stick  which  passes  from  the  ground  between  the  legs  to  the 
throat,  and  which  serves  to  support  the  corpse  more  firmly.  In 
the  mouth  is  always  found  a  small  disk  of  copper,  silver  or  gold.* 
The  greater  part  of  the  corpses  were  sufficiently  well  preserved, 
but  the  flesh  was  shriveled  and  the  features  disfigured,  the  hair 
always  perfectly  preserved,  that  of  the  women  artificially  braided, 
but  the  black  pigment  or  coloring  matter  had  lost  more  or  less 
of  its  primitive  color  and  had  become  reddish. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  art  of  embalming  was  known  to 
the  Peruvians,  but  probably  only  to  a  certain  class  of  Incas,  who, 
holding  it  as  a  secret,  exercised  it  upon  the  corpses  of  the  kings 

*  This  remarkable  coincidence  with  the  mummies  of  Egypt  is  deserving  of 
consideration. 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  99 

and  their  legitimate  wives  only.  It  is  certain  that  the  corpses 
of  the  kings  were  incomparably  better  preserved  than  the  others, 
in  consequence  of  certain  means  used,  and  the  assertion  that  this 
was  a  secret  of  the  royal  family  is  founded  on  the  fact  that  there 
have  been  found  no  other  artificial  mummies  than  those  of  the 
kings  and  queens.  Neither  do  we  know  what  means  the  masters 
used  to  embalm  them,  nor  what  substances  they  used  to  avoid 
putrefaction  and  give  a  certain  flexibility  to  the  skin.  To  obtain 
a  knowledge  of  this  it  would  be  necessary  to  submit  one  of  these 
mummies  to  a  chemical  analysis.  It  is  generally  believed  that 
the  other  mummified  corpses,  which  are  found  by  millions,  as  well 
on  the  coast  as  on  the  mountains,  had  been  also  embalmed,  but 
it  is  a  serious  error,  they  being  only  natural  mummies.  On  the 
coast  the  heated  soil  and  calcined  sand  dry  the  corpses,  and  in 
the  interior  the  pure  cold  air  and  the  dry  winds  do  the  same 
thing.  A  corpse  placed  in  a  cave  of  the  Sierra  or  in  the  sandy 
ground  of  the  coast,  under  shelter  from  the  voracity  of  the  birds, 
will,  in  either  case,  be  found  at  the  end  of  months  entire,  not  cor- 
rupted, but  dried.* 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Mexico — Aztec  Migration — Teocallis — The  Great  Temple  of  Mexico — Mexicans 
Cannibals — The  Teocalli  of  Cozurael — Of  Sempoalla — The  Victims  of  Sac- 
rifice— The  Teocallis  of  Cholula— Their  Destruction — The  History  of  Cho- 
lula—  Its  Great  Temple — Teocallis  as  Forts — The  Capture  of  the  Great 
Temple  of  Mexico— The  Capture  of  the  Teocallis  of  Sempoalla. 

THE  Aztecas,  or  Mexicans,  who  were  the  last  people  who  settled 
in  Anahuac,  lived  until  about  the  year  1160  of  the  vulgar  era  in 
Aztlan,  a  country  situated  to  the  north  of  the  Gulf  of  California, 
according  to  what  appears  from  the  route  they  pursued  in  their 
migration.  Betancourt  makes  Aztlan  twenty-seven  hundred  miles 
distant  from  Mexico.  Boturini  says  Aztlan  was  a  province  of 
Asia.  In  several  charts,  published  in  the  sixteenth  century,  this 
country  appears  situated  to  the  north  of  the  Gulf  of  California, 
and  I  do  not  doubt  that  it  is  to  be  found  in  that  quarter,  though 
at  a  distance  from  the  gulf,  as  the  distance  mentioned  by  Betan- 

*  When  Almegro  invaded  Chili,  in  passing  over  the  highest  mountains  on 
the  coast,  some  of  his  men  on  horseback  were  frozen — horse  and  man.  Some 
months  afterwards  the  horses  and  riders  were  found  as  they  had  been  frozen. 


100  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

court  seems  very  probable.  The  migration  of  the  Aztecas,  which 
is  certain,  happened,  as  near  as  we  can  conjecture,  about  the  year 
1 160  of  the  vulgar  era.  Torquemada  says  he  has  observed  an  arm 
of  the  sea,  or  a  great  river,  represented  on  all  the  ancient  paintings 
of  this  migration.  I  believe  this  pretended  arm  of  the  sea  was  no 
other  than  those  representations  of  the  universal  deluge  painted  in 
the  Mexican  pictures  before  the  beginning  of  their  emigration. 
Boturini  alleges  this  arm  of  the  sea  to  be  the  Gulf  of  California,  as 
he  is  persuaded  that  the  Mexicans  passed  from  Aztlan  to  California, 
and  from  thence,  crossing  the  gulf,  transported  themselves  to  Culia- 
can ;  but  there  being  found  remains  of  buildings,  constructed  by 
the  Mexicans,  in  their  migration,  on  the  river  Gila,  and  in  Pimeria, 
and  not  in  California,  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  they 
crossed  the  sea,  but  came  by  land  to  Culiacan.* 

Having  crossed  the  Colorado  river,  they  proceeded  as  far  as  the 
river  Gila,  where  they  stopped  for  some  time,  and  where  there  are 
still  remains  of  great  edifices  built  by  them  on  the  borders  of  that 
river.  From  thence,  having  resumed  their  course  towards  the 
south-southeast,  they  stopped  in  about  the  twenty-ninth  degree  of 
north  latitude,  at  a  place,  which  is  more  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  the  city  of  Chihuahua,  towards  the  north-north- 
west, known  by  the  name  of  Case  Grande,  on  account  of  an  im- 
mense edifice  which,  agreeably  to  the  universal  tradition  of  these 
people,  was  built  by  the  Mexicans  in  their  peregrinations.  From 
hence,  traversing  the  mountains  of  Tarahumara,  and  directing 
their  course  towards  the  south,  they  reached  Huiecolhuacan,  at 
present  called  Culiacan,  situated  on  the  Gulf  of  California.  Here 
they  formed  a  statue  of  wood,  representing  Huitzilopochtli,  the 
titulary  deity  of  the  nation,  and  made  a  chair  of  reeds  and  rushes, 
called  TeoicpalK,  a  Chair  of  God,  to  transport  it  in.  They  choose 
priests  who  were  to  carry  him  on  their  shoulders,  four  at  a  time, 
to  whom  they  gave  the  name  Teotlamacazque,  servants  of  God,  and 
the  act  itself  of  carrying  him  was  called  Teomama,  that  is,  to  carry 
God  on  one's  back. 

From  Huiecolhuacan  they  came  to  Chicomoztoc,  where  they 
stopped.  Hitherto  all  the  seven  tribes  had  travelled  in  a  body  to- 
gether ;  but  here  they  separated,  and  the  Xochimilcas,  Tepanecas, 
Chalchese,  Tlahuicas  and  Tlascalans  proceeded  onwards,  leaving 
the  Mexicans  there  with  their  idol.  The  situation  of  Chicomoztoc, 
where  the  Mexicans  sojourned  nine  years,  is  not  known ;  but  it 
appears  to  be  that  place  twenty  miles  distant  from  the  city  of  Za- 

*  The  above  embraces  text  and  notes  from  Clavigero's  "History  of  Mexico." 


CHAP.   XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  101 

catecas,  towards  the  south,  where  there  are  still  some  remains  of  an 
immense  edifice,  which,  according  to  the  tradition  of  the  Zacate- 
cas,  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  that  country,  was  the  work  of  the 
Aztecas  in  their  migration.  Finally,  in  the  year  1196  they  arrived 
at  the  celebrated  city  of  Tula,  which  is  confirmed  by  a  manuscript 
history  in  Mexican,  cited  by  Botourini,  and  in  this  point  of  chro- 
nology other  authors  agree. 

In  Tula  they  stopped  nine  years,  and  afterwards  in  other  places 
eleven  years,  until,  in  1216,  they  arrived  at  Zampanco,  a  consider- 
able city  in  the  vale  of  Mexico.  After  remaining  seven  years  in 
Zampanco  they  went  to  Tizayocan,  whence  they  went  to  Tolpetlac 
and  Tepeyacac,  both  situated  on  the  borders  of  Lake  Tezcuco ;  but 
those  in  Tepeyacac,  being  harassed  by  a  Chechemecan  cacique,  were 
forced,  in  1245,  to  retire  to  Chapoltepec,  a  mountain  situated  on 
the  western  borders  of  the  lake,  hardly  two  miles  distant  from 
the  site  of  Mexico.  The  persecutions  which  they  suffered  in  this 
place  from  some  chiefs  made  them,  at  the  end  of  seventeen  years, 
abandon  it,  to  seek  a  more  secure  asylum  in  Acocolco,  which  con- 
sisted of  a  number  of  small  islands  at  the  southern  extremity  of 
the  lake. 

Finally,  the  Mexicans  having  returned  to  Huitzilopochtli,  they 
erected  there  an  altar  to  their  tutelary  god.  The  day  of  the  con- 
secration the  king  of  Colhua  and  his  nobility  failed  not  to  be 
present,  not  to  honor  the  festival,  but  to  make  a  mockery  of  it. 
The  Mexicans  brought  out  four  prisoners,  and,  after  having  made 
them  dance  a  little,  sacrificed  them  upon  a  stone,  breaking  their 
breasts  with  the  knife  of  itzil,  and  tearing  out  their  hearts,  which, 
while  yet  warm  and  beating,  they  offered  to  their  god. 

This  human  sacrifice,  the  first  of  the  kind  which  we  know  to 
have  been  made  in  this  country,  excited  such  horror  in  the  Col- 
huas,  that  the  king  sent  orders  to  the  slaves  (the  Mexicans)  to  de- 
part immediately  out  of  that  district,  and  go  wherever  they 
pleased.*  The  Mexicans  willingly  accepted  their  discharge  from 
slavery,  and  directed  their  course  northward,  and  came  to  Acat- 
zitzintlan,  a  place  situated  between  two  lakes,  named  afterwards 
Mexicaltzinco,  which  name  is  almost  the  same  as  that  of  Mexico, 
but  not  finding,  in  that  situation,  the  conveniences  they  desired, 
they  proceeded  to  Iztacalco. 

After  having  sojourned  two  years  in  Iztacalco,  they  finally 
came  to  that  situation  on  the  lake  where  they  were  to  found  their 

*  "Slave"  and  "  prisoner"  were  synonymous  with  the  Indians,  and  as  it  was 
customary  for  these  to  adopt  prisoners,  and  for  weak  tribes  to  incorporate  them- 
selves with  stronger  ones,  it  is  probable  that  the  Mexicans,  in  this  case,  were  an 
incorporated  tribe,  or  adopted  prisoners. 


102  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

city.  •  There  they  found  a  nopal  or  opunta  growing  in  a  stone,  and 
over  it  the  foot  of  an  eagle.  On  this  account  they  gave  to  the  place, 
and  afterwards  to  the  city,  the  name  Tenochtitlan.  All  the  his- 
torians of  Mexico  say  this  was  the  precise  mark  given  them  by 
their  oracle  for  the  foundation  of  their  city.  There  is  a  great  dif- 
ference of  opinion,  among  authors,  respecting  the  etymology  of  the 
word  Mexico.  Some  derive  it  from  Mitzli,  moon.  But  Mexico 
signifies  the  place  of  Mexitli  or  Huitzilopochtli,  that  is  the  God  of 
War,  or  Mars  of  the  Mexicans,  on  account  of  the  sanctuary  there 
erected  to  him.  The  Mexicans  take  away  the  final  syllable  Ui  in 
the  compounding  of  words  of  this  kind.  The  co  added  to  it  is  the 
preposition  in.  The  word  Mexicaltzinco  means  the  place  of  the 
house  or  temple  of  the  god  Mexitli,  so  that  Huitzilopocho,  Mexi- 
caltzinco, and  Mexico,  the  names  of  the  three  places  inhabited  by 
the  Mexicans,  mean  the  same  thing,  in  substance.* 

A  particular  description  of  the  great  temple  or  teocalli  (feo, 
god — calli,  house)  of  the  City  of  Mexico  will  convey  a  correct 
idea  of  all  the  principal  structures  of  this  kind  in  Mexico. 

These  teocallis  were  in  different  places  constructed  of  different 
materials — stone,  brick,  or  earth ;  some  had  ramps,  with  steps 
leading  directly  to  the  top,  where,  in  small  sanctuaries,  were  the 
idols  to  which  they  sacrificed  . human  beings  on  a  stone  in  front 
of  the  sanctuary,  ripping  out  the  heart  of  the  living  victim  and 
presenting  it  on  the  altar  of  the  god.  Others  had  three  or  four 
terraces,  each  extending  the  circuit  of  the  teocalli,  excepting  the 
space  occupied  by  the  steps.  The  stairs  to  ascend  from  one  ter- 
race to  another  were  all  at  the  same  side  and  angle  of  the  teocalli, 
so  that  it  was  necessary  to  make  the  circuit  of  the  teocalli  to  pass 
from  one  flight  of  steps  to  the  next.  These  structures  were  in- 
closed with  a  wall,  at  a  sufficient  distance  from  the  temple  to  form 
around  it  a  commodious  rectangular  court,  in  the  middle  of  the 
four  sides  of  which  was  a  gate. 

These  structures  were  not  peculiar  to  Mexico.  They  are  found 
at  Cahokia,  in  Illinois ;  at  Selzertown,  in  Mississippi ;  at  Macon 
and  near  Cartersville,  in  Georgia ;  besides,  in  all  probability,  at 
many  other  places,  as  at  the  great  mounds  of  Marietta,  Ohio ;  of 
Grave  Creek,  Virginia ;  of  New  Madrid,  Missouri ;  of  Trinity, 
Louisiana ;  of  Bolivar  County,  Mississippi ;  on  the  Savannah 
river,  opposite  Silver  Bluff;  on  the  upper  branches  of  the  Savan- 
nah river,  etc.,  etc.  And  this  appears  confirmed  by  the  arrange- 
ment of  these  mounds,  which  indicate  that  they  were  of  the  same 
origin  and  destiny  as  the  teocalli.  This  probability  is  still  fur- 

*  Clavigero. 


mayordc^faSxrco  cledceadoaLDios 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  103 

ther  confirmed  by  the  costume  of  the  mummies  discovered  in 
Tennessee  and  in  Kentucky,  which  showed  that  the  inhabitants 
of  that  time  were  dressed  as  the  Mexicans. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  the  great  temple  of  ancient 
Mexico,  made  from  the  accounts  of  it  by  Diaz,  De  Solis  and 
Clavigero. 

Bernal  Diaz  thus  describes  the  great  teocalli  of  the  City  of 
Mexico : 

"  We  had  already  been  four  days  in  the  City  of  Mexico.  Cortes 
now  determined  to  view  the  city,  and  visit  the  great  market  and 
the  chief  temple  of  Huitzilapochtli  [11].  Montezuma  resolved  to 
accompany  us  himself,  with  some  of  his  principal  officers.  Hav- 
ing arrived  at  a  spot  about  half-way  between  his  palace  and  a 
temple,  he  stepped  out  of  his  sedan,  as  he  would  have  deemed  it 
a  want  of  respect  towards  his  gods  to  approach  them  any  other- 
wise than  on  foot.  He  leant  upon  the  arms  of  the  principal  offi- 
cers of  his  court;  others  walked  before  him,  holding  up  on  high 
two  rods  having  the  appearance  of  sceptres,  which  was  a  sign 
that  the  monarch  was  approaching.  He,  whenever  he  was  car- 
ried in  his  sedan,  held  a  short  staff  in  his  hand,  one-half  of  gold 
and  the  other  half  of  wood.  In  this  way  he  came  up  to  the 
temple,  which  he  ascended  with  many  papas*  On  reaching  the 
summit  he  immediately  began  to  perfume  Huitzilapochtli,  and 
perform  other  ceremonies. 

"  Our  commander  had  proceeded  to  the  Tlatclulco  (the  great 
market-place  of  ancient  Mexico). 

"  On  quitting  the  market-place  we  entered  the  spacious  yards 
which  surround  the  chief  temple.  These  appeared  to  encompass 
more  ground  than  the  market-place  of  Salamanca,  and  were  sur- 
rounded by  a  double  wall  constructed  of  stone  and  lime.  These 
yards  were  paved  with  large  white  flag-stones,  extremely  smooth, 
and  where  those  were  wanting  a  kind  of  brown  plaster  had  been 
used  instead,  and  all  was  kept  so  very  clean  that  there  was  not 
the  smallest  particle  of  dust  or  straw  to  be  seen  anywhere. 

"  Before  we  mounted  the  steps  of  the  great  temple,  Montezuma, 
who  was  sacrificing  on  the  top  to  his  idols,  sent  six  papas  (priests) 
and  two  of  his  principal  officers  to  conduct  Cortes  up  the  steps. 
There  were  one  hundred  and  fourteen  steps  to  the  summit.  When 
we  had  reached  the  summit  of  the  temple  we  walked  across  the 
platform,  where  many  large  stones  were  lying,  on  which  those 
who  were  doomed  for  sacrifice  are  stretched  out.  Near  there 

*  Papa,  priest,  father,  probably  was  a  name  given  to  them  by  Diaz. 


104  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

stood  a  large  idol,  in  the  shape  of  a  dragon,  surrounded  by  vari- 
ous other  abominable  figures,  with  a  quantity  of  fresh  blood  lying 
in  front  of  it.  Montezuma  himself  stepped  out  of  a  chapel  in 
which  his  cursed  gods  were  standing,  accompanied  by  two  papas, 
and  received  Cortes  and  the  whole  of  us  very  courteously. 

"  This  infernal  temple,  from  its  great  height,  commanded  a  view 
of  the  whole  surrounding  neighborhood.  From  here  we  discov- 
ered that  the  only  communication  of  the  houses  in  this  city  and 
of  all  the  other  towns  built  in  the  lake  was  by  drawbridges  or 
canoes.  In  all  these  towns  the  beautiful  white-plastered  temples 
rose  above  the  smaller  ones,  like  so  many  towers  and  castles  in 
our  Spanish  towns;  and  this,  it  may  be  imagined,  was  a  splendid 
sight.  On  this  occasion  Cortes  said  to  Father  Olmedo,  '  I  have 
just  been  thinking  that  we  should  take  this  opportunity  and  ap- 
ply to  Montezuma  for  permission  to  build  a  church  here.'  To 
which  Father  Olmedo  replied,  '  That  it  would  be  acting  over- 
hasty  to  make  a  proposition  of  that  nature  to  him  now.' 

"Cortes  then  turned  to  Montezuma  and  said  to  him,  by  means 
of  our  interpreter.  Dona  Marina :  '  I  have  now  one  favor  to  beg 
of  you,  that  you  would  allow  us  to  see  your  gods  and  teules.' 
To  which  Montezuma  answered  that  he  must  consult  his  chief 
papa,  to  whom  he  then  addressed  a  few  words.  Upon  this  we 
were  led  into  a  kind  of  small  tower,  with  one  room,  in  which  we 
saw  two  basements,  resembling  altars,  decked  with  coverings  of 
extreme  beauty.  On  each  of  these  basements  stood  a  gigantic, 
fat-looking  figure,  of  which  the  one  on  the  right  hand  represented 
the  god  of  war,  Huitzilopochtli.  This  idol  had  a  very  broad  face, 
with  distorted  and  furious-looking  eyes,  and  was  covered  all  over 
with  jewels,  gold,  and  pearls,  which  were  stuck  to  it  by  means  of 
a  species  of  paste.  Large  serpents,  likewise  covered  with  gold  and 
precious  stones,  wound  round  the  body  of  this  monster,  which 
held  in  one  hand  a  bow,  and  in  the  other  a  bunch  of  arrows. 
Another  small  idol,  which  stood  by  his  side,  representing  its  page, 
carried  this  monster's  short  spear  and  its  gold  shield,  studded 
with  precious  stones.  Around  Huitzilopochtli's  neck  were  figures 
representing  human  faces  and  hearts,  made  of  gold  and  silver, 
and  decorated  with  blue  stones.  In  front  of  him  stood  several 
perfuming-pans  with  copal,  the  incense  of  the  country ;  also  the 
hearts  of  three  Indians,  who  had  that  day  been  slaughtered,  were 
now  consuming  before  him,  as  a  burnt-offering.  Every  wall  of 
this  chapel  and  the  whole  floor  had  become  almost  black  with 
human  blood,  and  the  stench  was  abominable. 

"  On  the  left  stood  another  figure  of  the  same  size  as  Huitzilo- 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  105 

pochtli.  Its  face  was  very  much  like  that  of  a  bear  ;  its  shining 
eyes  were  made  of  tetzcat,  the  looking-glass  of  the  country.  This 
idol,  like  his  brother  Huitzilopochtli,  was  completely  covered  with 
precious  stones,  and  was  called  Tetzcatlipuca.  This  was  the  god 
of  hell,*  and  the  souls  of  the  dead  Mexicans  stood  under  him.  A 
circle  of  figures  wound  round  his  body,  representing  diminutive 
devils  with  serpents'  tails.  The  walls  and  floor  around  this  idol 
were  also  besmeared  with  blood,  and  the  stench  was  worse  than  a 
Spanish  slaughter-house.  Five  human  hearts  had  that  day  been 
sacrificed  to  him.  On  the  very  top  of  this  temple  stood  another 
chapel,  the  wood-work  of  which  was  uncommonly  well  finished 
and  richly  carved.  In  this  chapel  there  was  also  another  idol, 
half-man  and  half-lizard,  completely  covered  with  precious  stones. 
Half  of  this  figure  was  hidden  from  view.  We  were  told  that  the 
hidden  half  was  covered  with  the  seeds  of  every  plant  of  this 
earth,  for  this  was  the  god  of  the  seeds  and  fruits.  I  have,  how- 
ever, forgotten  its  name,  but  not  that  everything  here  was  also 
besmeared  with  blood,  and  the  stench  so  offensive  that  we  could 
not  have  stayed  there  much  longer.  In  this  place  was  kept  a 
drum  of  enormous  dimensions,  the  tone  of  which,  when  struck, 
was  so  deep  and  melancholy  that  it  has  very  justly  been  denomi- 
nated the  drum  of  hell.  The  drumskin  was  made  out  of  that  of 
an  enormous  serpent ;  its  sound  could  be  heard  at  the  distance 
of  more  than  eight  miles.  This  platform  was  covered  with  a 
variety  of  hellish  objects — large  and  small  trumpets,  huge  slaugh- 
tering-knives, and  burnt  hearts  of  Indians  who  had  been  sacri- 
ficed— everything,  clotted  with  coagulated  blood,  cursed  the  sight 
and  created  horror  in  the  mind.  Besides  all  this,  the  stench  was 
everywhere  so  abominable  that  we  scarcely  knew  how  soon  to  get 
away  from  this  spot  of  horrors.  Our  commander  here  said  to 
Montezuma,  '  Allow  me  to  erect  a  cross  on  the  summit  of  this 
temple  and  in  the  chapel  where  stand  your  Huitzilopochtli  and 
Tetzcatlipuca ;  give  us  a  small  space,  that  I  may  place  there  the 
image  of  the  holy  Virgin ;  then  you  will  see  what  terror  will  seize 
these  idols,  by  which  you  have  been  so  long  deluded.' 

"  Montezuma  knew  what  the  image  of  the  Virgin  Mary  was, 
yet  he  was  very  much  displeased  with  Cortes'  offer,  and  replied, 
in  presence  of  two  papas,  whose  anger  was  not  less  conspicuous : 
'  I  earnestly  beg  of  you  not  to  say  another  word  to  insult  the  pro- 
found veneration  in  which  we  hold  these  gods.' 

*  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  the  character  of  this  god  is  differently  repre- 
sented by  Clavigero,  who  makes  him  the  god  of  Providence,  the  Supreme 
Being,  the  Greatest  of  Gods. 


106  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

"  As  soon  as  Cortes  heard  these  words  and  perceived  the  great 
excitement  under  which  they  were  pronounced  he  said  nothing 
in  return,  but  merely  remarked  to  the  monarch,  '  It  is  time  for  us 
both  to  depart  hence.'  To  which  Montezuma  answered  that  he 
would  not  detain  him  any  longer,  but  he  himself  was  now  obliged 
to  stay  some  time,  to  atone  to  his  gods  for  having  allowed  us  to 
ascend  the  great  temple,  and  thereby  occasioning  the  affronts  which 
we  had  offered  them.  '  If  that  is  the  case,'  returned  Cortes,  I 
beg  your  pardon,  great  monarch.'  Upon  this  we  descended  the 
one  hundred  and  fourteen  steps. 

"  If  I  remember  rightly,  this  temple  occupied  a  space  of  ground 
on  which  we  could  have  erected  six  of  the  largest  buildings,  as  they 
are  commonly  found  in  our  country.  The  whole  building  ran  up 
in  rather  a  pyramidal  form,  on  the  summit  of  which  was  the  small 
towers  with  the  idols.  From  the  midde  of  the  temple  up  to  the 
platform  there  were  five  landings,  after  the  manner  of  barbacans, 
but  without  any  breastworks.  The  following  is  what  I  learned 
respecting  the  building  of  this  temple.  Every  inhabitant  had 
contributed  his  mite  of  gold,  silver,  pearls,  and  precious  stones 
thereto.  These  gifts  were  then  buried  in  the  foundations,  and  the 
ground  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  a  great  number  of  prisoners 
of  war,  and  strewed  with  the  seeds  of  every  plant  of  the  country. 
This  was  done  that  the  god  might  grant  the  country  conquests, 
riches,  and  abundant  harvests.  Subsequent  to  the  conquest  of 
this  large  and  strongly  fortified  city  we  found  it  to  be  a  positive 
fact,  for  when  new  buildings  were  being  erected  on  the  place 
where  the  temple  stood  a  great  part  of  the  space  was  fixed  upon 
for  the  new  church  dedicated  to  our  patron  saint,  Santiago, 
the  workmen,  in  digging  up  the  old  foundations  to  give  more 
solidity  to  the  new  ones,  found  a  quantity  of  gold,  silver,  pearls, 
chalchihuis  stones,  and  other  valuable  things.*  A  similar  dis- 
covery was  made  by  a  citizen  of  Mexico,  to  whom  also  a  portion 
of  this  space  had  been  allotted  for  building-ground.  Besides  all 
this,  the  accounts  of  the  caciques  and  grandees  of  Mexico,  and  even 
of  Guatamozin  himself,  who  was  alive  at  that  time,  all  corres- 

*  Bernal  Diaz,  the  last  survivor  of  the  followers  of  Cortes,  or  at  least  of  the 
conquerors  of  Mexico,  was,  or  endeavored  to  be,  truthful  in  his  ' '  History  of 
the  Conquest  of  Mexico,"  and  here  gives  evidence  of  it,  for  this  event  is  men- 
tioned as  he  says,  and  related  by  Clavigero.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  make  the 
different  accounts  of  this  temple  conform  with  the  movements  and  assaults  of 
the  Spaniards  when  they  captured  it,  and  yet  this  temple  was  the  grandest  and 
most  public  edifice  in  the  city.  The  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  built  2899  years  ago, 
is  better  known  than  this  Temple  of  Mexico. 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  107 

pond  with  my  statement.  Lastly,  it  is  also  mentioned  in  the 
books  and  paintings  which  contain  the  history  of  the  country.* 

"  With  respect  to  the  extensive  and  splendid  courtyards  belong- 
ing to  this  temple,  I  have  said  sufficient  before.  I  cannot,  how- 
ever, pass  by  in  silence  a  kind  of  small  tower  standing  in  its  im- 
mediate vicinity,  likewise  containing  idols.  I  should  term  it  a 
temple  of  hell,  for  at  one  of  its  doors  stood  an  open-mouthed 
dragon,  armed  with  huge  teeth,  resembling  a  dragon  of  the  infer- 
nal regions,  the  devourer  of  souls.  There  also  stood  near  this 
same  door  other  figures  resembling  devils  and  serpents,  and  not 
far  from  this  an  altar,  encrusted  with  blood,  grown  black,  and 
some  that  had  recently  been  spilt.  In  a  building  adjoining  this 
we  perceived  a  quantity  of  dishes  and  basins  of  various  shapes. 
These  were  filled  with  water,  and  served  to  cook  the  flesh  in  of  the 
unfortunate  beings  who  had  been  sacrificed,  which  flesh  was  eaten 
by  the  papas.  Near  to  the  altar  were  lying  several  daggers  and 
wooden  blocks,  similar  to  those  used  by  our  butchers  to  hack 
meat  on.  At  a  pretty  good  distance  from  this  house  of  horrors 
were  piles  of  wood,  and  a  large  reservoir  of  water,  which  was  filled 
and  emptied  at  stated  times,  and  received  its  supply  through 
pipes  under  ground  from  the  aqueduct  of  Chapultepec.  I  could 
find  no  better  name  for  this  dwelling  than  the  house  of  Satan. 

"  I  will  now  introduce  my  reader  into  another  temple,  in  which 
the  grandees  of  Mexico  were  buried,  the  doors  of  which  were  of  a 
different  form,  and  the  idols  were  of  a  totally  different  nature,  but 
the  blood  and  stench  were  the  same. 

"  Next  to  this  temple  was  another,  in  which  human  skulls  and 
bones  were  piled  up,  though  both  apart ;  their  numbers  were  end- 
less. This  place  had,  also,  its  appropriate  idols,  and  in  all  these 
temples  we  found  priests  clad  in  long  black  mantles,  with  hoods 
shaped  like  those  worn  by  the  Dominican  friars  and  choristers. 
Their  ears  were  pierced,  and  the  hair  of  their  head  was  long,  and 
stuck  together  with  coagulated  blood. 

"  Lastly,  I  have  to  mention  another  temple,  at  no  great  distance 
from  this  place  of  skulls,  containing  another  species  of  idol,  who 
was  said  to  be  the  protector  of  the  marriage-rites  of  men,  to  whom 
likewise  those  abominable  human  sacrifices  were  made.  Round 
about  this  large  courtyard  stood  a  great  number  of  small  houses, 
in  which  the  papas  dwelt  who  were  appointed  over  the  ceremonies 

*  If  some  skilful  diver,  with  modern  appliances,  should  examine  the  bed  of 
Lake  Titicaca,  in  Peru,  he  would  6nd  an  immense  treasure  there,  where  Peru- 
vian votaries  for  centuries  deposited  their  valuable  offerings,  by  casting  them 
into  the  lake  at  a  particular  place. 


108  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

of  the  idol  worship.  Near  to  the  chief  temple  we  also  saw  an 
exceedingly  large  basin  or  pond  filled  with  the  purest  water, 
which  was  solely  adapted  to  the  worship  of  Huitzilopochtli  and 
Tetzcatlipuca,  being  also  supplied,  by  pipes  under  ground,  from 
the  aqueduct  of  Chapultepec.  There  were  also  other  large  build- 
ings in  this  neighborhood,  after  the  manner  of  cloisters,  in  which 
great  numbers  of  the  young  women  of  Mexico  lived  secluded, 
like  nuns,  until  they  were  married.  These  had  also  two  appro- 
priate idols  in  the  shape  of  females,  who  protected  the  marriage- 
rites  of  women,  and  to  whom  they  prayed  and  sacrificed,  in  order 
to  obtain  from  them  good  husbands. 

"  Although  this  temple  on  the  Tlatclulco  was  the  largest  in  Mex- 
ico, yet  it  was  by  no  means  the  only  one,  for  there  were  numbers 
of  other  splendid  temples  in  this  city.  I  have  to  remark  that  the 
chief  temple  at  Cholula  was  higher  than  that  of  Mexico,  and  was 
ascended  by  one  hundred  and  twenty  steps ;  also  the  idol  at  Cho- 
lula stood  in  greater  repute,  for  pilgrimages  were  made  to  it  from 
all  parts  of  New  Spain,  to  obtain  forgiveness  of  sins.  The  archi- 
tecture of  this  building  was  also  different,  but  with  respect  to  the 
yards  and  double  walls  they  were  alike.  The  temple  of  the  town 
of  Tetzcuco  was  also  of  considerable  height,  being  ascended  by 
one  hundred  and  seventeen  steps,  and  had  broad  and  beautiful 
courtyards  equal  to  those  of  the  two  last  mentioned,  but  differ- 
ently constructed.  Each  province  and  every  town  had  its  own 
peculiar  idols,  which,  however,  never  interfered  with  each  other, 
and  the  inhabitants  severally  sacrificed  to  them. 

"  Cortes,  and  the  whole  of  us,  at  last,  grew  tired  at  the  sight  of  so 
many  idols  and  implements  used  for  these  sacrifices,  and  we  re- 
turned to  our  quarters  accompanied  by  a  great  number  of  chief 
personages  and  caciques,  whom  Montezuma  had  sent  for  that 
purpose.* 

"  The  idol  temples  were  called  cues,  and  were  as  numerous  as  the 
churches,  chapels  and  monasteries  of  Spain.  Every  township  had 
its  own  temples,  which  were  filled  with  demons  and  diabolical 
figures.  Besides  these,  every  Indian,  man  and  woman,  had  two 
altars,  one  near  to  where  they  slept,  and  the  other  near  the  door  of 
the  house.  In  same  provinces  circumcision  took  place. 

"  The  Indians  ate  human  flesh  in  the  same  way  that  we  do  that 
of  oxen,  and  there  were  large  wooden  cages  in  every  township,  in 
which  men,  women  and  children  were  fattened  for  their  sacrifices 

*  Bernal  Diaz,  "Conquest  of  Mexico,"  translated  from  the  original  Spanish, 
by  John  Ingram  Lockhart,  F.E.A.S. 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  109 

and  feasts.*  In  the  same  way  they  butchered  and  devoured  all 
the  prisoners  they  took  during  war  time.  The  head,  arms  and 
legs  were  cut  off,  and,  with  the  exception  of  the  head,  eaten  at 
their  banquets.  No  other  part  of  the  body  was  eaten,  but  the  re- 
mainder was  thrown  to  the  beasts,  which  were  kept  in  their  abom- 
inable dens,  in  which  there  were  also  vipers  and  other  poisonous 
snakes ;  and  among  the  latter,  in  particular,  a  species  at  the  end 
of  whose  tail  there  was  a  kind  of  rattle.  This  last-mentioned  ser- 
pent, which  is  the  most  dangerous,  was  kept  in  a  cabin  of  diversi- 
fied form,  in  which  a  quantity  of  feathers  had  been  strewn  ;  here 
it  laid  its  eggs,  and  it  was  fed  with  the  flesh  of  dogs  and  of  human 
beings  who  had  been  sacrificed. "f 

The  first  mention  of  a  teocalli  is  made  by  Diaz  in  his  account  of 
the  voyage  of  Grijalva  in  the  year  1518,  when  he  discovered 
Mexico.  This  account  is  in  his  "  Discovery  and  Conquest  of 
Mexico,"  where  he  says:  "Grijalva  arrived  at  an  island  (San 
Juan  d'Uloa)  about  two  miles  from  the  continent,  where  they 
found  a  temple  on  which  stood  the  great  and  abominable-looking 
ggd  Tetzcatlipuca,  surrounded  by  four  Indian  priests  dressed  in 
wide  black  cloaks  and  with  flying  hair,  who  had  that  very  day 
sacrificed  two  boys,  whose  bleeding  hearts  they  had  offered  to  the 
horrible  idol." 

The  Temple  of  Cozumel,^  so  revered  by  the  Indians,  was  not  far 
from  the  coast.  It  was  of  a  square  form,  built  of  stone,  and  of  an 
architecture  not  contemptible.  The  idol  had  the  form  of  a  man, 
but  of  an  air  so  terrible  and  so  hideous  that  it  was  easy  to  recog- 
nize in  it  the  features  of  its  original.  All  the  idols  adored  by 
these  wretched  people  had  the  same  character  of  countenance ;  for 
although  they  might  be  different  in  material  and  construction,  and 
for  representation,  they  all  resembled  each  other  in  their  abomina- 

*  When  Geronimo  d'Aguilar,  about  1511,  was  wrecked  on  his  way  from  Da- 
rien  to  St.  Domingo,  and  his  boat  carried  by  the  current  to  Yucatan,  he  and 
those  with  him  were  seized  by  Indians  and  confined  in  a  bamboo  cage,  to  be  fat- 
tened and  sacrificed,  at  the  feasts,  to  the  Indian  idols,  Aguilar  and  Alonzo 
Guerrero,  a  sailor,  remaining  the  last  to  be  sacrificed.  Guerrero  one  night  suc- 
ceeded in  extracting  one  of  the  bamboos,  and  he  and  his  companion  escaped. 
How  singularly  providential  appears  this  adventure  of  Aguilar,  who,  after  having 
lived  eight  years  among  the  Indians,  Cortes  received  at  Cozumel,  and  had  for 
his  interpreter  during  his  conquest  of  Mexico. 

f  In  regard  to  this  poisonous  rattlesnake  laying  eggs,  it  is  said  that  snakes 
not  poisonous  lay  eggs,  while  poisonous  snakes  are  viviparous.  I  shot  a  cotton- 
mouth  snake,  which  is  one  of  the  most  poisonous  kind.  The  shot  tore  its  body 
open,  and  out  crawled  four  or  five  young  snakes  five  or  six  inches  long. 

t  Cozumel,  an  island  between  Cuba  and  Yucatan. 


110  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

ble  ugliness.  The  greatest  effort  of  the  skill  of  the  workman  con- 
sisted in  the  expression  of  the  most  hideous  figure. 

It  is  said  that  this  idol  was  named  Cozumel,  and  that  it  had  given 
to  the  island  the  name  which  it  still  preserves.  When  the  Span- 
iards arrived  at  this  temple  they  found  a  great  concourse  of  In- 
dians there,  and  in  the  midst  of  them  a  priest  whose  equipage  was 
different  from  that  of  the  others  by  a  certain  ornament  or  kind  of 
covering  which  hardly  concealed  his  nudity.  It  seemed  that  he 
was  preaching,  or  that  he  wished  to  persuade  them  of  something, 
by  the  tones  of  his  voice  or  very  ridiculous  gestures,  for  he  gave 
himself  the  air  of  a  preacher  with  all  the  gravity  and  authority 
that  a  man  could  have  who  showed  all  that  even  nature  com- 
manded him  to  conceal.  Cortes  interrupted  him,  and,  turning  to 
the  cacique,  told  him,  "  That  to  maintain  the  friendship  that  ex- 
isted between  them,  he  must  renounce  the  worship  of  his  idols,  in 
order  to  persuade  his  subjects  to  do  the  same  thing  from  his  ex- 
ample." The  cacique  requested  permission  to  communicate  this 
affair  to  his  priests,  to  whom  he  left  a  sovereign  authority  to  de- 
cide in  matters  of  religion.  This  conference  terminated  in  bring- 
ing to  the  presence  of  the  general  this  venerable  preacher,  accom- 
panied by  other  persons  of  his  profession,  who  all  were  bawling 
very  loudly ;  and  these  cries,  explained  by  the  interpreter,  were 
protestations  on  the  part  of  heaven  against  those  who  should  be  so 
rash  as  to  destroy  the  worship  which  they  rendered  to  their  gods, 
declaring  that  they  would  see  punishment  immediately  follow 
this  attempt.  These  menaces  only  irritated  Cortes ;  and  his  soldiers, 
accustomed  to  interpret  the  expressions  of  his  countenance,  im- 
mediately comprehended  his  intentions,  and  fell  upon  the  idol 
with  so  much  ardor  that  it  was  cut  in  pieces  in  a  moment,  as  well 
as  a  great  number  of  small  statues  placed  in  different  niches 
around  it.  This  fracas  put  the  Indians  in  a  terrible  consternation  ; 
but  when  they  saw  that  the  sky  was  very  serene,  and  that  the 
promised  vengeance  was  much  delayed,  the  respect  which  they 
had  for  their  idol  was  turned  into  contempt.  They  were  angry  to 
see  their  gods  so  pacific,  and  this  rage  was  the  first  effect  which 
the  truth  made  in  their  hearts.  The  other  temples  or  chapels  met 
the  same  fate,  and  the  largest  being  cleaned  of  all  this  debris  of 
idolatry,  they  erected  there  an  altar,  upon  which  they  put  an  image 
of  the  Holy  Virgin ;  and  opposite  the  entrance  to  the  temple  Cortes 
caused  to  be  erected  a  great  cross,  which  was  dressed  by  the  car- 
penters of  the  fleet  with  as  much  zeal  as  diligence.  The  next  day 
mass  was  said  at  this  altar. 

It  is  worth  noticing,  here,  the  conversion  of  these  heathen  tern- 


CHAP.  Xir.]  OF   AMERICA.  Ill 

pies,  as  were  several  of  the  Roman,  into  Christian  churches,  as 
showing  how  one  nation  of  a  different  religion  makes  use  of  the 
edifices  of  another ;  and  may  it  not  be  thus'with  the  present  abo- 
rigines of  this  country  ?  May  not  these  mounds,  on  which  they 
erected  these  houses  of  worship,  have  been  or  have  contained  the 
temples  of  the  nations  who  preceded  them  ?  It  will  be  seen,  in  the 
course  of  this  account,  that  not  only  on  this  occasion,  but  on  sev- 
eral others,  heathen  temples  were  converted  into  Christian  churches. 

At  Sempoalla,  Cortes,  having  made  the  Indians  sensible  of  the 
abuses  of  their  false  gods,  finally  told  them  that  he  had  deter- 
mined to  ruin  all  these  images  of  the  devil,  and  that  if  they 
would  do  with  their  own  hands  so  sacred  a  work,  he  would  be  for- 
ever obliged  to  them.  He  wished  to  persuade  them  to  ascend  the 
steps  of  the  temple,  to  go  and  pull  down  their  idols ;  but  they  re- 
sponded to  this  proposition  only  with  their  exclamations  and  their 
tears ;  even  so  far  that,  casting  themselves  on  the  ground,  they  pro- 
tested that  they  would  let  themselves  be  cut  in  pieces  rather  than 
lay  hands  on  their  gods.  Cortes  would  not  insist  more  on  a  point 
which  caused  them  so  much  pain ;  he  commanded  his  soldiers 
to  do  it,  and  they  worked  at  it  so  willingly  that  in  a  moment 
there  were  seen  flying  in  pieces,  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  of  the 
steps,  the  principal  idol  and  all  his  suit,  accompanied  even  with 
the  altars  and  all  the  detestable  instruments  of  this  impious  wor- 
ship. Some  of  these  idols  were  shaped  like  furious  dragons,  and 
were  about  the  size  of  young  calves ;  others  with  half  the  human 
form ;  some  again  were  like  large  dogs.  The  Indians  witnessed 
the  ruin  with  much  emotion  and  astonishment.  They  looked 
upon  one  another  as  if  they  expected  every  moment  the  punish- 
ment which  heaven  should  inflict  for  this  action  ;  but  as  they  saw 
the  sky  very  clear,  they  very  soon  fell  into  the  same  ideas  as  the 
Indians  of  Cozumel ;  for  seeing  their  gods  in  pieces,  without  the 
power  to  avenge  themselves,  they  ceased  to  dread  them,  and  de- 
spised their  weakness,  as  the  people  recognized,  by  the  ruin  of 
their  powers,  how  much  they  were  deceived  when  they  made  them 
objects  of  their  adoration. 

This  experience  made  the  Sempoallans  more  docile  and  more 
submissive  to  the  orders  of  Cortes,  because,  if  till  then  they  had 
regarded  the  Spaniards  as  men  of  a  species  far  above  themselves, 
they  now  found  themselves  obliged  to  avow  that  they  were  even 
above  their  gods.  Cortes,  knowing  that  he  had  acquired  an  ascend- 
ancy over  their  minds  by  this  act,  commanded  them  to  clean  the 
temple.  This  they  did  with  so  much  joy  and  zeal  that  they  cast 
into  the  fire  all  the  pieces  of  their  idols,  in  order  to  show  that  they 


112  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

were  wholly  undeceived.  The  cacique  ordered  his  architects  to 
wash  the  walls  of  the  temple  (in  order  to  efface  from  them  all 
the  mournful  blood-stains  of  the  men  sacrificed),  who  made  a 
most  beautiful  ornament  of  it.  They  then  gave  it  a  coat  of  that 
"  gez-gez"  so  white  and  so  brilliant,  of  which  they  make  use  to 
embellish  their  houses ;  and  they  built  there  an  altar,  where  the 
image  of  the  most  holy  Virgin  was  placed,  decked  with  a  great 
quantity  of  flowers  and  with  some  candles.  The  day  following 
they  celebrated  there  the  holy  Mass,  with  all  the  solemnity  that 
the  time  and  place  would  permit.* 

The  following,  from  Bernal  Diaz,  gives  information  in  regard 
to  the  sacrifices  at  the  City  of  Mexico.  This  scene  took  place, 
after  the  destruction  of  the  Temple  of  Sempoalla,  at  Quiahuitzlan, 
built  on  the  steep  declivity  of  a  rock :  "  We  arrived  in  the  midst 
of  the  town  without  meeting  any  one.  On  the  most  elevated 
point  of  the  fortress  there  was  an  open  space  in  front  of  the  cues 
and  large  houses  of  their  idols,  and  here  we  first  met  with  fifteen 
well-dressed  Indians,  who  were  carrying  perfuming-pans.  With 
these  they  went  up  to  Cortes,  perfumed  him  and  all  who  were 
near  at  the  time,  and  bid  us  welcome.! 

"  While  the  first  welcoming  was  going  on,  it  was  announced  to 
Cortes  that  the  fat  cacique  of  Sempoalla  was  approaching  in 
a  sedan  supported  by  numbers  of  distinguished  Indians.  Imme- 
diately upon  his  arrival  he  renewed  his  complaints  against  Mon- 
tezuma,  in  which  he  was  joined  by  the  caciques  of  this  township 
and  other  chief  personages.  He  related  so  much  of  the  cruelties 
and  oppression  they  had  suffered,  and  thereby  sobbed  and  sighed 
so  bitterly,  that  we  could  not  help  being  affected.  At  the  time 
when  they  had  been  subdued  they  had  already  been  greatly  ill- 
used.  Montezuma  then  demanded  annually  a  great  number  of 
their  sons  and  daughters,  a  portion  of  whom  were  sacrificed  to 
his  idols,  and  the  rest  were  employed  in  his  household  and  for 
tilling  his  ground.  His  tax-gatherers  took  their  wives  and  daugh- 
ters without  any  ceremony,  if  they  were  handsome,  merely  to  sat- 

*  From  a  French  version  of  "De  Solis,"  by  the  author  of  the  "Trium- 
virate. ' ' 

f  A  ludicrous  incident  occurred  on  one  of  the  voyages  of  Columbus  to 
America.  When  he  had  landed  at  some  place  on  the  continent,  the  Indians 
approached  him  and  prepared  to  perfume  him,  but  when  the  Spaniards  beheld 
the  white  powder  that  they  sprinkled  in  the  air,  they,  imagining  it  was  some 
species  of  sorcery  or  enchantment,  rushed  at  the  Indians,  who  fled  for  their 
lives.  Yet  these  superstitious  Spaniards  had  hundreds  of  times  seen  similar 
ceremonies  in  their  own  temples,  by  their  own  priests.  But  the  followers  of 
Cortes  were  quite  a  different  set  of  men  from  the  sailors  of  Columbus. 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  113 

isfy  their  lusts.     The  Totanaques,  whose  territory  consisted  of  up- 
wards of  thirty  townships,  suffered  the  like  violence. 

"  We  soon  had  proof  of  this  on  the  very  spot,  for  during  our  dis- 
course with  their  caciques  some  Indians  belonging  to  the  district 
announced  that  just  then  five  Mexican  tax-gatherers  had  arrived. 
At  this  information  the  caciques  turned  quite  pale  with  fear. 
They  left  Cortes  and  hastened  to  receive  the  unexpected  guests, 
for  whom  an  apartment  was  immediately  cleaned,  and  dinner  set 
on  table.  As  the  house  of  the  cacique  was  in  the  vicinity,  the 
Mexicans  passed  by  our  quarters,  but  behaved  with  such  reserve 
and  hauteur  that  they  addressed  neither  Cortes  nor  any  of  us. 
They  wore  richly-worked  mantles,  and  maltatas  similarly  manu- 
factured, which  were  then  and  still  are  in  fashion  among  them. 
The  hair  of  their  head  was  combed  out  quite  glossy  and  tied  up 
in  a  knot,  in  which  were  stuck  some  sweet-scented  roses.  Every 
one  carried  a  stick  with  a  hook,  and  had  an  Indian  slave  to  keep 
off  the  flies.  They  were  accompanied  by  a  great  number  of  dis- 
tinguished personages  from  the  country  of  the  Totanaques,  who 
remained  around  them  until  they  arrived  at  their  quarters  and 
had  sat  down  to  dinner. 

"  Cortes,  who  observed  how  restless  every  one  appeared,  desired 
Dona  Marina  and  Aguilar  to  explain  the  reason  of  all  this,  and 
who  the  strange  Indians  were.  They  answered  that  they  were 
tax-gatherers  of  the  great  Montezuma,  who  had  remonstrated  with 
them  for  having  received  us  without  his  previous  permission,  and 
now  required  twenty  persons,  of  both  sexes,  for  a  sacrifice  to  the 
god  of  war,  in  order  that  he  should  grant  them  the  victory  over 
us.  Upon  this  Cortes  consoled  them  and  bade  them  take  courage, 
assuring  them  that  he  would  punish  the  Mexicans  for  it,  as  both 
himself  and  his  troops  were  willing  and  able  to  do  so.  As  the 
Mexican  tax-gatherers  now  required  human  beings  of  them  for 
these  sacrifices,  he  would  take  and  keep  them  prisoners  until 
Montezuma  should  learn  the  reason  why  he  had  done  so. 

"  When  the  Indians  learned  this  astounding  and,  to  them,  so  im- 
portant an  occurrence,  they  said  to  one  another  that  such  great 
things  could  not  have  been  done  by  men,  but  only  by  Teules, 
which  sometimes  means  gods,  and  sometimes  demons;  here  in 
the  former  sense,  which  was  the  reason  they  termed  us  teules  from 
that  moment." 

What  is  remarkable  in  this  account  is  the  absurdity  and  incon- 
sistency of  the  conduct  of  these  Indians,  who  sacrificed  human 
beings  on  the  altars  to  their  gods  and  sold  the  flesh  of  their  victims 
in  their  public  markets ! 

8 


114  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  following  is  an  account  of  the  Temple  of  Cholula:  * 

Cortes  having  appointed  the  day  on  which  he  was  to  leave 
Tlascalla,  the  Tlascallans  advised  the  general  to  go  by  Guajazingo, 
a  plentiful  and  safe  country,  because  the  people  of  Cholula,  be- 
sides being  cunning  and  traitors,  rendered  slavish  obedience  to 
Montezuma,  who  had  no  subjects  more  submissive  or  more  faith- 
ful. The  Indians  added  : 

"  That  all  the  neighboring  provinces  of  this  town  regard  it  as  a 
holy  land,  because  it  embraced  within  its  walls  more  than  four 
hundred  temples  of  gods  so  strange  that  they  overwhelm  people 
by  the  force  of  prodigies.  That  for  these  reasons  it  was  too  dan- 
gerous to  pass  through  their  lands  without  having  some  mark  of 
their  approval." 

The 'entry  of  the  Spaniards  into  the  town  of  Cholula  was  at- 
tended by  all  the  circumstances  of  that  of  Tlascalla — a  frightful 
concourse  of  people,  which  they  pierced  with  difficulty,  and  deaf- 
ening acclamations.  The  town  appeared  so  pretty  to  the  Span- 
iards that  they  compared  it  to  Valladolid.  It  was  situated  in  a 
plain  open  on  all  sides,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  view,  and  very 
pleasant'.  They  say  that  it  could  contain  then  twenty  thousand 
inhabitants,  without  counting  those  of  the  suburbs,  which  were 
of  a  greater  number.  There  was  a  great  resort  of  strangers  to  it, 
who  came  there  either  as  to  a  sanctuar}'  of  their  gods  or  as  to  a 
place  celebrated  by  their  commerce.  The  streets  were  well  drawn, 
and  the  houses  larger  and  of  a  better  architecture  than  those  of 
Tlascalla ;  especially  their  sumptuousness  was  remarkable  in  the 
towers,  which  made  known  the  number  of  their  temples.  The 
people  were  more  wise  than  warlike,  and  the  most  of  them  mer- 
chants or  officers ;  many  people,  and  few  of  distinction. 

The  lodgings  which  they  had  prepared  for  the  Spaniards  con- 
sisted of  two  or  three  great  houses,  which  joined  each  other,  where 
the  Spaniards  and  Sempoallans  fortified  themselves.  The  Tlascal- 
lans took  a  position  a  little  distant  from  the  town. 

The  Tlascallan  officers  informed  Cortes  that  the  inhabitants 
meditated  some  treason.  "  It  was  learned,  also,  that  in  the  most 
celebrated  temple  of  the  town  they  had  sacrificed  ten  children 
of  both  sexes,  a  ceremony  which  they  performed  when  they  wished 
to  undertake  some  warlike  action.  Two  or  three  Sempoallans  ar- 
rived at  this  moment;  they  had,  in  walking  through  the  town, 
discovered  by  chance  the  trenches  which  the  Cholulans  had  dug, 

*  From  a  work  which  has  on  the  title-page  "Traducte  de  1'Espagnol  de 
Dom  Antoine  de  Solis,  par  1'Auteur  du  Triumvirat." 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  115 

and,  moreover,  observed  ditches  and  palisades  which  the  Indians 
had  made  in  order  to  lead  the  horsemen  direct  to  ruin." 

After  this,  Cortes  informed  the  caciques  who  governed  the  city, 
and  published,  that  he  had  decided  to  leave  the  following  day. 
He  demanded  of  the  caciques  provisions  for  his  troops  during 
their  march,  Indians  to  carry  the  baggage,  and  two  thousand 
warriors  to  accompany  him. 

The  porters  arrived  in  small  numbers  at  daybreak,  with  some 
few  provisions.  The  warriors  came  afterward  in  file;  the  pretext 
was  to  accompany  the  Spaniards  during  their  journey,  but  they  had 
orders  to  attack  the  rear  guard  at  a  certain  signal,  when  the  op- 
portunity presented  itself.  The  general  had  them  posted  sepa- 
rately in  divers  places  of  his  lodgings,  where  they  were,  as  it  were, 
guarded ;  making  them  believe  it  was  the  method  which  the 
Spaniards  observed  when  they  wished  to  form  their  order  of 
battle.  In  fact,  he  disposed  his  soldiers,  well-informed  of  what 
they  had  to  do.  As  for  him,  he  mounted  his  horse  with  those 
who  were  to  follow  him  ;  after  which  he  had  the  caciques  called, 
in  order  to  inform  them  of  his  decision.  Some  of  them  presented 
themselves ;  others  excused  themselves ;  and  Marina  told  the 
former,  by  order  of  Cortes,  that  their  treason  was  discovered  and 
that  they  had  resolved  to  chastise  it,  etc.  Hardly  had  he  de- 
clared the  evils  which  were  going  to  happen  to  them,  when  the 
caciques  fled  to  their  troops,  and  gave  the  signal  of  battle  by  in- 
sults and  threats,  which  were  heard  at  a  distance.  Then  Cortes 
ordered  his  infantry  to  attack  the  Indians  of  Cholula  whom  he 
had  kept  shut  up  in  many  places  of  his  quarters,  and  although 
they  found  them  with  arms  in  their  hands,  with  the  design  of 
executing  their  treason,  and  they  had  made  great  efforts  to  unite, 
they  were  nevertheless  cut  in  pieces,  so  that  there  only  escaped 
those  who  could  conceal  themselves  or  leap  over  the  walls  by 
making  use  of  their  lances,  and  by  their  swiftness,  which  is  natural 
to  them. 

After  they  had  thus  secured  their  quarters  by  the  slaughter  of 
these  covert  enemies,  they  gave  the  signal  to  the  Tlascallans,  and 
the  Spaniards  advanced  through  the  principal  street,  after  having 
left  a  sufficient  guard  at  the  quarters.  They  detached  some  Sem- 
poallans  that  they  might  make  known  the  trenches  and  the  horse- 
men be  able  to  avoid  that  danger.  In  the  meantime  the  Cholu- 
lans  were  not  negligent.  The  moment  they  saw  the  battle  begun 
they  sent  for  the  rest  of  the  Mexican  troops,  and  after  being  united 
to  them  in  the  great  square,  where  there  were  three  or  four  tem- 
ples, they  furnished  its  porticos  and  towers  with  a  part  of  their 


116  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

soldiers,  and  divided  the  rest  in  several  battalions,  with  the  design 
of  attacking  the  Spaniards,  whose  first  ranks  began  to  appear  in 
the  public  square  and  mingle  with  the  enemy,  when  the  Tlas- 
callans  fell  upon  their  rear-guard.  This  unexpected  attack  threw 
them  into  such  a  great  fright  and  such  disorder  that  they  knew 
not  what  to  do,  neither  to  escape  nor  to  defend  themselves.  The 
Spaniards,  finding  no  more  obstruction  and  no  resistance  in  these 
wretches,  who  flying  one  danger  fell  into  another,  without  know- 
ing which  was  the  greater,  nevertheless  the  greater  number  escaped 
into  the  temple,  the  steps  of  which  and  the  terraces  were  loaded 
with,  rather  than  defended,  by  a  multitude  of  armed  Indians. 
The  Mexicans  had  undertaken  its  defence,  but  they  found  them- 
selves so  pressed  by  the  crowd  of  inhabitants  that  rushed  there 
in  disorder  that  they  could  not  turn,  and  hardly  had  they  room 
to  discharge  a  few  arrows. 

The  general  approached  in  good  order  the  largest  of  these 
temples,  and  ordered  the  interpreter  to  proclaim  in  a  loud  voice 
that  he  would  give  quarters  to  those  who  would  descend  and 
surrender.  He  caused  this  to  be  repeated  three  times,  and  as  he 
saw  that  his  efforts  were  useless,  he  ordered  that  they  should  set 
fire  to  the  towers  of  this  temple,  and  the  authors  assert  that  this 
order  was  executed  with  the  greatest  rigor,  and  that  many  Indians 
were  miserably  consumed  in  the  fire,  or  crushed  under  the  ruins. 
However,  it  appears  that  they  could  not  easily  put  fire  to  these 
buildings,  which  were  very  high,  before  they  had  reached  the 
steps  of  the  temple,  unless  Cortes  had  made  use  of  those  inflam- 
mable arrows  with  which  the  Indians  aided  themselves  in  throw- 
ing their  artificial  fire.  What  there  is  certain  is,  that  they  could 
not  dislodge  the  enemy  from  it  until  they  had  made  use  of  their 
artillery  ;  and  it  was  noticed  as  a  surprising  thing  that  of  all 
those  who  were  cut  in  pieces  in  this  temple,  there  was  not  a 
single  one  who  voluntarily  surrendered  to  the  Spaniards,  which  is 
a  terrible  indication  of  the  obstinacy  of  these  wretches. 

They  attacked  the  other  temples  in  the  same  manner,  after 
which  the  soldiers  spread  themselves  through  the  city,  which  was 
entirely  destroyed,  and  the  battle  ceased  for  want  of  enemies. 
There  remained  in  the  streets  of  Cholula  more  than  six  thousand 
men  slain,  Mexicans  and  inhabitants,  without  it  costing  us  a  single 
man,  so  well  the  general  knew  how  to  conduct  this  action,  which 
merits  the  name  of  chastisement  rather  than  that  of  victory.* 

The  ancient   city  of  Cholula,  capital  of  the   republic  of  that 

*  De  Solis. 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA. 

name,  lay  nearly  six  leagues  south  of  Tlascalla,  and  about  twenty 
east,  or  rather  south-east,  from  Mexico.  It  was  unquestionably 
at  the  time  of  the  Conquest  one  of  the  most  populous  and  flourish- 
ing cities  in  New  Spain. 

It  was  of  great  antiquity,  and  was  founded  by  the  primitive 
races  who  overspread  the  land  before  the  Aztecs.  Veytia  carries 
back  the  foundation  of  the  city  to  the  Ulmecs,  a  people  who  pre- 
ceded the  Toltecs.  The  state  maintained  its  independence  down 
to  a  very  late  period,  when,  if  not  reduced  to  vassalage  by  the 
Aztecs,  it  was  so  far  under  their  control  as  to  enjoy  few  of  the 
benefits  of  a  separate  political  existence.  The  Cholulan  capital 
was  the  great  commercial  emporium  of  the  plateau. 

But  the  capital,  so  conspicuous  for  its  refinement  and  its  great 
antiquity,  was  even  more  venerable  for  the  religious  traditions 
which  invested  it.  It  was  here  that  the  god  Quetzalcoatl  paused 
on  his  passage  to  the  coast,  and  passed  twenty  years  in  teaching 
the  Toltec  inhabitants  the  arts  of  civilization.  He  made  them 
acquainted  with  better  forms  of  government,  and  a  more  spiritualized 
religion,  in  which  the  only  sacrifices  were  the  fruits  and  flowers  of 
the  season.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  what  he  taught,  since  his 
lessons  have  been  so  mingled  with  the  licentious  dogmas  of  his  own 
priests  and  the  mystic  commentaries  of  the  Christian  missionary. 

It  was  in  honor  of  this  benevolent  deity  that  the  stupendous 
mound  was  erected,  the  most  colossal  fabric  in  New  Spain,  rival- 
ing in  dimensions,  and  somewhat  resembling  in  form,  the  pyra- 
midal structures  of  ancient  Egypt.  The  date  of  its  erection  is 
unknown,  for  it  was  found  there  when  the  Aztecs  entered  in  the 
plateau.  It  had  the  form  common  to  the  Mexican  teocallis,  that 
of  a  truncated  pyramid,  facing  with  its  four  sides  the  cardinal 
points,  and  divided  into  the  same  number  of  terraces.  Its  origi- 
nal outlines,  however,  have  been  effaced  by  the  action  of  time 
and  of  the  elements.  A  road  cut  some  years  ago  across  the 
tumulus  laid  open  a  large  section  of  it,  in  which  the  alternate 
layers  of  brick  and  clay  are  distinctly  visible.  The  perpendicu- 
lar height  of  the  pyramid  is  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  feet. 
Its  base  is  fourteen  hundred  and  twenty-three  feet  long,  as  long 
as  that  of  the  great  pyramid  of  Cheops,  and  covers  about  forty- 
four  acres,  and  the  platform  on  its  truncated  summit  embraces 
more  than  one.  On  the  summit  stood  a  sumptuous  temple,  in  which 
was  the  image  of  the  mystic  deity,  "  god  of  the  air,"  with  ebon 
features,  unlike  the  fair  complexion  which  he  bore  upon  earth, 
wearing  a  mitre  on  his  head,  waving  with  plumes  of  fire,*  with  a 

*  Figuratively,  probably,  for  red  plumes  or  feathers. 


118  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XTI. 

resplendent  collar  of  gold  round  his  neck,  pendants  of  mosaic 
turquoise  in  his  ears,  a  jeweled  sceptre  in  one  hand,  and  a  shield 
curiously  painted,  the  emblem  of  his  rule  over  the  winds,  in  the 
other.*  Pilgrims  from  the  furthest  corners  of  Anahuac  came  to  offer 
up  their  devotions  at  the  shrine  of  Quetzalcoatl.f 

Many  of  the  kindred  races  had  temples  of  their  own  in  the 
city,  in  the  same  manner  as  some  Christian  nations  have  in  Rome, 
and  each  temple  was  provided  with  its  own  peculiar  ministers  for 
the  service  of  the  deity  to  whom  it  was  consecrated. £  In  no  city 
was  there  such  a  concourse  of  priests,  so  many  processions,  such 
pomp  of  ceremonials,  sacrifices  and  religious  festivals.  Cholula 
was,  in  short,  what  Mecca  is  among  Mahommedans  or  Jerusalem 
is  among  Christians — it  was  the  Holy  City  of  Anahuac. 

The  religious  rites  were  not  performed,  however,  in  the  pure 
spirit  originally  prescribed  by  its  tutelary  deity.  His  altars,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  numerous  Aztec  gods,  were  stained  with 
human  blood,  and  six  thousand  victims  are  said  to  have  been 
annually  offered  up  at  their  sanguinary  shrines.  The  great  num- 
ber of  these  may  be  estimated  from  the  declaration  of  Cortes,  that 
he  counted  four  hundred  towers  in  the  city,  yet  no  temple  had 
more  than  two,  many  only  one.  High  above  the  rest  rose  the 
great  "  pyramid  of  Cholula,  with  its  undying  fires,  flinging  their 
radiance  far  and  wide  over  the  capital,  and  proclaiming  to  the 
nations  that  there  was  the  mystic  worship — alas  !  how  corrupted 
by  cruelty  and  superstition — of  the  good  deity  who  was  one  day 
to  return  and  resume  his  empire  over  the  land."§ 

These  teocallis  were  places  not  only  for  the  performance  of  re- 
ligious rites,  but  also  of  refuge  and  defence.  The  Indians  believed 
in  their  sanctity  and  their  supernatural  influence.  As  the  Chris- 
tians at  the  capture  of  Constantinople  fled  to  St.  Sophia,  for  its 
miraculous  protection,  so  the  Indians  of  Mexico  fled  to  a  teocalli 
at  the  capture  of  that  city  by  the  Spaniards,  believing  that  its 
sacred  character  would  render  it  impregnable  to  the  assaults  of 
the  enemy,  but  Cortes  soon  undeceived  them  by  a  few  discharges 
of  his  cannon. 

*  "A  minute  account  of  the  costume  and  insignia  of  Quetzalcoatl  is  given  by 
Father  Sahagun,  who  saw  the  Aztec  gods  before  the  arm  of  the  Christian 
convert  had  tumbled  them  from  '  their  pride  of  place.'  ': 

f  "From  the  distance  of  two  hundred  leagues,"  says  Torquemada. 

|  It  appears  that  all,  or  almost  all,  heathen  nations  were  tolerant  of  religious 
rites  and  creeds.  Rome,  Greece,  and  Egypt  were  stocked  with  idols  and  deities 
of  various  kinds. 

%  Prescott's  "History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico." 


CHAP.  XII.]  OF    AMERICA.  119 

When  the  Mexicans  attacked  Cortes  and  his  men  in  the  City  of 
Mexico,  they  took  possession  of  the  great  temple,  to  the  loftiest 
and  most  considerable  tower  of  which  nearly  five  hundred  In- 
dians, apparently  persons  of  rank,  ascended.  This  teocalli  had, 
according  to  Cortes's  letter,  three  or  four  terraces,  about  a  yard 
wide,  and  were  about  sixteen  feet  one  above  another.  This  would 
make  the  height  of  this  teocalli  sixty-four  feet.  He  sa}7s :  "  So 
arduous  was  the  attempt  to  take  this  tower,  that  if  God  had  not 
broken  their  spirits  twenty  of  them  would  have  been  sufficient  to 
resist  the  ascent  of  a  thousand  men,  although  they  fought  with 
the  greatest  valor." 

De  Solis  thus  describes  the  capture  of  it  by  the  Spaniards :  "  The 
morning  following  the  day  on  which  the  obsequies  of  Montezuma 
were  celebrated,  by  daybreak  all  the  streets  in  the  neighborhood 
were  occupied  and  garrisoned  by  the  Indians,  the  towers  of  the 
great  temple,  which  was  a  little  distance  from  the  quarters,  com- 
manding a  part  of  the  edifice  within  reach  of  their  slings  and 
arrows,  a  position  which  Cortes  would  have  fortified  if  he  had  had 
sufficient  forces  to  divide  them. 

The  ascent  to  the  top  of  this  temple  was  by  a  hundred  steps. 
They  had  lodged  in  it  as  many  as  five  hundred  soldiers,  selected 
from  among  the  Mexican  nobles,  so  determined  to  maintain  it 
that  they  had  provided  themselves  with  arms  and  provisions  for 
many  days. 

Cortes  found  himself  obliged  to  dislodge  the  enemy  from  so 
advantageous  a  position,  and  to  accomplish  it  he  drew  the  greater 
part  of  his  men  outside  of  the  ramparts,  divided  into  squadrons, 
and  committed  the  attack  to  Captain  Escobar  with  his  company 
of  a  hundred  select  Spaniards.  Escobar  attacked  and  took  the 
lower  portico  and  a  part  of  the  steps,  for  the  Indians  intention- 
ally allowed  them  to  approach  them  that  they  might  better  attack 
them  nearer;  and  on  seeing  the  opportunity  they  covered  the 
ramparts  with  men,  and  discharged  their  arrows  and  darts  with 
so  much  vigor  and  concert  that  they  compelled  him  to  stop  and 
order  that  they  should  use  their  arquebuses  and  cross-bows 
against  those  who  showed  themselves  ;  but  it  was  not  possible  to 
resist  the  second  charge,  which  was  more  severe.  They  had  in 
store  great  stones  and  gruesas,  beams  some  of  them,  the  half  on 
fire,  they  let  fall  from  the  top,  which  recovering  force  on  the  slope 
of  the  steps,  obliged  him  to  recede  three  times.*  Hernando  Cortes 

*  From  this  it  is  evident  that  the  ascent  to  the  top  of  the  teocalli  was  by  a 
ramp  with  steps,  leading  directly  to  the  top.  Besides,  it  is  evident  from  the 
attack  of  Escobar  and  that  of  Cortes  that  neither  of  them  made  repeated  cir- 
cuits on  the  terraces  of  tte  teocalli  to  reach  the  top. 


120  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XII. 

recognized  the  danger,  and  dismounting,  reinforced  the  company 
of  Escobar  with  the  men  of  his  own  company.  He  caused  a  shield 
to  be  tied  to  his  wounded  arm,  and  rushed  up  the  steps  with  the 
greatest  resolution.  He  quickly  and  fortunately  conquered  the 
impediments  to  the  assault,  reached  at  the  first  attack  the  last 
steps,  and  soon  after  the  battlements  of  the  top.  They  were  Mexi- 
can nobles  who  defended  it,  and  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  cut 
in  pieces  rather  than  surrender  their  arms.  The  priests  and  min- 
isters of  the  temple  died  fighting,  and  in  a  short  time  Cortes  was 
master  of  the  position. 

There  were  several  teocallis  in  Sempoalla.  Narvaez,  who  was 
sent  with  forces  by  Velasquez,  governor  of  Cuba,  to  capture 
Cortes,  fortified  himself  in  one  of  them,  where  he  was  surprised 
by  Cortes.  "  Sandoval  charged  the  quarters  of  Narvaez,  and 
drove  his  adversaries  from  the  court  to  the  teocalli,  and  com- 
menced advancing  up  the  steps,  but  not  being  able  to  sustain 
himself  against  a  body  of  troops  much  larger  than  his  own,  and 
in  an  advantageous  position,  he  was  beaten  back  down  the  steps. 
Just  at  this  critical  juncture  Olid  arrived  to  his  assistance,  the 
tide  was  turned,  and  Sandoval  again  pressed  forward  with  renewed 
vigor.  Narvaez  now  appeared  in  the  midst  of  his  men,  and  did 
everything  to  animate  them  and  to  put  them  in  order,  after  which 
he  rushed  forward  into  the  thickest  of  the  fight,  where  he  received 
so  violent  a  blow  in  his  face,  from  a  lance,  that  it  crushed  his  eye 
and  hurled  him  senseless  to  the  pave.  The  fall  of  Narvaez  caused 
confusion  in  his  men,  who  found  themselves  obliged  to  retire,  and 
the  conquerors  took  this  opportunity  to  drag  Narvaez  to  the  foot 
of  the  stair  and  into  the  midst  of  the  rear  battalion. 

"  The  battle,  however,  still  continued  in  various  points,  as  sev- 
eral of  Narvaez's  officers  maintained  their  positions  on  the  tops 
of  other  teocallis.  Cortes,  however,  sent  round  a  herald  to  sum- 
mon them  to  surrender  under  penalty  of  death  in  case  of  refusal. 
This  had  the  desired  effect,  and  only  the  troops  under  young 
Diego  Velasquez  and  Salvatierra,  which  had  taken  up  their  posi- 
tion on  the  summit  of  a  very  high  teocalli,  where  it  was  difficult 
to  get  at  them,  refused  to  submit.  But  Juan  Velasquez,  of  Leon, 
attacked  them  so  vigorously  that  at  last  he  forced  them  to  surren- 
der." 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  121 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Mexico — The  Founding  of  the  Great  Temple — Descriptions  of  the  Great  Tem- 
ple at  Mexico — Description  of  the  Temples  of  Teotihuacan,  Xochicalco, 
Mitla,  and  Papantla— The  Mexican  Hierarchy — Monasteries — Nunneries 
— Sacrifices — Offerings — Penances — Funeral  Rites — Fortifications. 

IN  the  "  History  of  Mexico,"  translated  from  the  original  Italian 
of  the  Abbe  Francisco  Saverio  Clavigero,  by  Charles  Cullen,  is  the 
following : 

"  Tizoc  died  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  reign,  the  one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  eighty-second  year  of  the  vulgar  era.  During  his 
time  the  power  and  wealth  of  the  crown  had  arrived  to  such  a 
height  that  he  undertook  to  construct  a  temple  to  the  tutelary  god 
of  the  nation,  '  which  was  to  have  surpassed,  in  grandeur  and 
magnificence,  all  the  temples  of  that  country.'  He  had  prepared 
a  great  quantity  of  material  for  that  purpose,  and  had  begun  the 
structure  when  death  interrupted  his  projects. 

"  The  electors  being  assembled  to  appoint  a  new  king,  they  chose 
Ahuitzotl,  the  brother  of  their  two  preceding  kings,  who  was 
already  general  of  the  army  ;  for,  from  the  time  of  Chimalpopoca,* 
the  custom  had  prevailed  of  exalting  no  one  to  the  throne  who  had 
not  first  occupied  that  post. 

"  The  first  object  to  which  the  new  king  paid  attention  was  the 
finishing  of  that  magnificent  temple  which  had  been  designed  and 
begun  by  his  predecessor.  It  was  resumed  with  the  utmost  spirit 
and  activity,  an  incredible  number  of  workmen  being  assembled, 
and  was  completed  in  four  years.  While  the  building  was  being 
constructed,  the  king  went  frequently  to  war,  and  all  the  prisoners 
which  were  taken  from  the  enemy  were  reserved  for  the  festival  of 
its  consecration.  The  wars  of  these  four  years  were  carried  on 
against  the  Mazahuas,  a  few  miles  distant  towards  the  west,  who 
had  rebelled  against  the  crown  of  Tacuba;  against  the  Zapotecas, 
three  hundred  miles  distant  in  the  southeast  ;*  and  against  several 
other  nations.  When  the  fabric  was  completed,  the  king  invited 
the  two  allied  kings,  and  all  the  nobility  of  both  kingdoms,  to  the 
dedication.  The  concourse  of  people  was,  by  far,  the  most  numer- 

*  "His  (Chimalpopoca's)  reign  lasted  about  thirteen  years,  being  concluded 
in  1423.  Chimalpopoca  was  the  third  King  of  Mexico,  from  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century." 


122  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

cms  ever  seen  in  Mexico,  as  this  famous  solemnity  drew  spectators 
from  the  most  distant  places.  The  festival  lasted  four  days,  during 
which  they  sacrificed,  in  the  upper  porch  of  the  temple,  all  the 
prisoners  which  they  had  made  in  the  four  preceding  years.  His- 
torians are  not  agreed  concerning  the  number  of  the  victims.  Tor- 
quemada  says  that  they  amounted  to  seventy-two  thousand  three 
hundred  and  forty-four;  others  affirm  they  were  sixty-four  thou- 
sand and  sixty  in  number.  After  the  festival  the  king  made 
presents  to  all  whom  he  had  invited.  This  event  happened  in 
1486. 

"  In  1510  Montezuma,  thinking  the  altar  for  the  sacrifices  too 
small,  and  unproportioned  to  the  magnificence  of  the  temple, 
caused  a  proper  stone  of  excessive  size  to  be  sought  for,  which  was 
found  near  to  Cojoacan.  After  ordering  it  to  be  cut  and  polished, 
he  commanded  it  to  be  brought  in  due  form  to  Mexico,  where  it 
was  consecrated  with  the  sacrifice  of  all  the  prisoners  that  had 
been  reserved  for  this  great  festival.  In  this  same  year  the  conse- 
cration of  the  temple  Tlamatzinco  was  celebrated,  and  also  that  of 
Quaxicalco.  The  victims  sacrificed  at  the  consecration  of  these 
two  edifices,  and  the  altar  of  the  sacrifices,  were,  according  to  the 
account  of  historians,  twelve  thousand  two  hundred  and  ten  in 
number. 

"  The  Mexicans  called  the  temple  Teocalli,  that  is,  the  House  of 
God,  and  Teopan,  the  Place  of  God.  The  immense  temple,  reared 
and  dedicated  by  Ahitzotl,  was  the  temple  which  the  Spaniards 
celebrated  so  highly  after  they  had  destroyed  it.  It  were  to  be 
wished  that  their  accuracy  in  describing  its  dimensions  had  been 
but  equal  to  their  zeal  in  destroying  that  superb  monument  of 
superstition ;  but  such  is  the  variety  of  their  accounts  that,  after 
having  labored  to  reconcile  them,  I  have  found  it  impossible  to 
ascertain  its  proportions ;  nor  should  I  ever  have  been  able  to  form 
an  idea  of  the  architecture  of  that  temple  without  the  figure  pre- 
sented to  us  by  the  Anonymous  Conqueror,  a  copy  of  which  I 
have  here  subjoined,  although  I  have  paid  less  regard  in  it  to  his 
delineation  than  his  description.  I  shall  mention,  therefore,  all 
that  I  think  may  be.  depended  upon  after  a  very  tedious  compari- 
son of  the  descriptions  given  by  four  eye-witnesses,  and  neglect 
what  I  have  been  unable  to  extract  from  the  confusion  of  different 
authors."* 

*  "The  four  eye-witnesses,  whose  descriptions  we  have  connected  together, 
are  Cortes,  Bernal  Diaz,  the  Anonymous  Conqueror  and  Sahagun.  The  first 
three  lived  for  several  months  in  the  palace  of  the  King  Axajacatl,  near  the 
temple,  and,  therefore,  saw  it  every  day.  Sahagun,  though  he  never  saw  it 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OP    AMERICA.  123 

The  great  temple  [11]  occupied  the  centre  of  the  city,  and,  to- 
gether with  the  other  temples  and  buildings  annexed  to  it,  com- 
prehended all  that  space  upon  which  the  great  cathedral  church 
now  stands,  part  of  the  greater  market-place,  and  part,  likewise,  of 
the  streets  and  buildings  around.  Within  the  enclosure  of  the 
wall,  which  encompassed  it  in  a  square  form,  Cortes  affirms  five 
hundred  houses  might  have  stood. 

The  wall,  built  of  stone  and  lime,  was  very  thick,  eight  feet 
high,  crowned  with  battlements  in  the  form  of  niches,  and  orna- 
mented with  many  stone  figures  in  the  shape  of  serpents,  whence  it 
obtained  the  name  of  Coatepantli,  or  the  wall  of  serpents.  It  had 
four  gates  to  the  four  cardinal  points :  the  eastern  gate  looked  to 
a  broad  street  which  led  to  the  lake  Tezcuco ;  they  corresponded 
to  the  three  principal  streets  of  the  city,  the  broadest  and  straight- 
est,  which  formed  a  continuation  with  those  built  upon  the  lake 
that  led  to  Iztapalapan,  to  Tacuba,  and  to  Tepejacac.  Over  each 
of  the  four  gates  was  an  arsenal  filled  with  a  vast  quantity  of 
offensive  and  defensive  weapons,  where  the  troops  went  when  it 
was  necessary  to  be  supplied  with  arms.  The  space  within  the 
wall  was  curiously  paved  with  such  smooth  and  polished  stones 
that  the  horses  of  the  Spaniards  could  not  move  upon  them  with- 
out slipping  and  tumbling  down.  In  the  middle  was  raised  an 
immense  solid  building  of  greater  length  than  breadth,*  covered 
with  square,  equal  pieces  of  pavement.  The  building  consisted  of 
five  bodies  nearly  equal  in  height,  but  differing  in  length  and 
breadth,  the  highest  being  narrowest.  The  first  body,  or  base  of 
the  building,  was  more  than  fifty  perches  long  from  east  to  west,  and 
about  forty -three  in  breadth  from  north  to  south  ;  the  second  body 

entire,  yet  saw  some  part  of  it,  and  could  discover  what  ground  it  had  occu- 
pied. Gomera,  who  did  not  himself  see  the  temple,  nor  ever  was  in  Mexico, 
received  the  different  accounts  of  it  from  the  conquerors  themselves,  who  saw 
it.  Acosta,  whose  description  has  been  copied  by  Herrera  and  De  Solis,  instead 
of  the  great  temple,  describes  one  perfectly  different.  This  author  was  not  in 
Mexico  until  sixty  years  after  the  conquest." 

*  "  Gomera  affirms  that  the  wall  was  a  very  long  bowshot  in  length  upon 
every  side.  Dr.  Hernandez  allows  to  the  wall  of  every  side  two  hundred 
Toledo  cubits,  which  is  about  eighty-six  perches.  Sahagun  makes  the  temple 
perfectly  square.  The  Anonymous  Conqueror  represents  it  to  have  been  of 
greater  length  than  breadth,  like  those  of  Teotihuacan,  which  served  as  models 
for  all  the  rest.  Sahagun  gives  to  the  first  body,  upon  every  side,  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty  Toledon  feet,  a  little  more  than  fifty  perches.  Gomera  gives  it 
fifty  brazas,  about  forty  perches,  which  is  the  measure  of  its  breadth."  But  the 
most  difficult  to  understand  is  the  ascent  to  the  top  of  the  great  temple.  From 
the  account  of  Cortes'  capture  of  the  temple  one  would  believe  that  the  ascent 
was  by  continuous  steps  formed  on  a  ramp  in  the  front  of  the  building. 


124  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

was  about  a  perch  less  in  length  and  breadth  than  the  first ;  the 
third  as  much  less  than  the  second,  and  the  rest  in  proportion ; 
so  that  upon  each  body  there  remained  a  free  space  or  plain, 
which  would  allow  three  or  even  four  men  abreast  to  walk  round 
the  next  body. 

The  stairs,  which  were  upon  the  south  side,  were  made  of  large, 
well-formed  stones,  and  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  fourteen 
steps,  each  a  foot  high.  They  were  not,  however,  one  single  stair- 
case continued  all  the  way,  as  they  have  been  represented  by  the 
authors  of  "  The  General  History  of  Travels  "  and  the  publishers 
of  "  Cortes'  Letters  in  Mexico,"  but  were  divided  into  as  many 
separate  staircases  as  there  were  bodies  of  the  building ;  so  that, 
after  getting  to  the  top  of  the  first  staircase,  we  could  not  mount 
the  second  without  going  along  the  first  plain  round  to  the 
second,  nor  the  third  without  going  along  the  second  plain,  and 
so  of  the  rest. 

The  area  of  the  top  of  the  temple,  which  was  about  forty-three 
perches  by  thirty-four,  was  as  well  paved  as  the  great  area  below. 
At  the  eastern  extremity  of  this  plain  were  raised  two  towers  to 
the  height  of  fifty  feet.  Each  was  divided  into  three  bodies,  the 
lower  of  which  was  of  stone  and  lime,  and  the  other  two  of  wood 
very  well  wrought  and  painted.  The  inferior  body  of  each  was 
properly  the  sanctuary,  where,  upon  an  altar  of  stone,  five  feet 
high,  were  placed  the  tutelary  idols.  One  of  these  two  sanctuaries 
was  consecrated  to  Huitzilopochtli  and  the  gods  of  war,  and  the 
other  to  Tezcatlipoca.  The  other  bodies  were  destined  to  the 
.keeping  of  some  things  belonging  to  the  worship  and  the  ashes 
of  some  kings  and  lords  who  through  particular  devotion  desired 
that  to  be  done.  The  doors  of  both  sanctuaries  were  towards  the 
west,  and  both  towers  terminated  in  a  very  beautiful  wooden 
cupola.  There  is  no  author  who  has  described  the  internal  dis- 
position and  ornaments  of  the  sanctuaries ;  so  that  what  is  repre- 
sented incomplete  is  only  delineated  from  conjecture.  I  believe, 
however,  we  may  venture  to  say,  without  danger  of  mistake,  that 
the  height  of  the  building,  without  towers,  was  not  less  than  nine- 
teen perches,  and,  with  the  towers,  exceeded  twenty-eight.  From 
that  height  one  might  see  the  lake,  the  cities  around  and  a  great 
part  of  the  valley ;  and  it  has  been  affirmed,  by  eye-witnesses,  to 
be  the  finest  prospect  in  the  world. 

Before  the  two  sanctuaries  were  two  stone  stoves  of  the  height 
of  a  man  and  of  the  shape  of  our  holy  pyx,  in  which  they  pre- 
served a  constant  fire  night  and  day  with  the  utmost  care,  fearing 
that,  if  ever  it  went  out,  they  should  suffer  the  most  dreadful 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  125 

punishment  from  heaven.  In  the  other  temples  and  religious 
buildings  comprised  within  the  enclosure  of  the  great  wall  there 
were  six  hundred  stoves  of  the  same  size  and  figure,  which,  in  the 
night-time,  when  they  used  all  to  be  burning,  presented  a  very 
pleasing  sight. 

In  the  space  betwixt  the  wall  and  the  great  temple  there  were 
besides  a  place  for  their  religious  dances,  upwards  of  forty  lesser 
temples  consecrated  to  the  other  gods,  and  many  other  buildings 
scattered  about,  of  which,  for  their  singularity,  it  will  be  necessary 
to  give  some  account. 

The  most  remarkable  were  the  Temples  of  Tezcatlipoca,  Tlaloc, 
and  Quetzalcoatl.  They  all  resembled  one  another  in  form,  but 
were  of  different  sizes,  and  all  fronted  the  great  temple,  while  the 
other  temples  without  this  area  were  built  with  the  front  towards 
the  west.  The  Temple  of  Quetzalcoatl,  which  differed  from  the 
rest  in  form,  it  being  round,  and  the  others  quadrangular.  The  door 
of  this  sanctuary  was  the  mouth  of  an  enormous  serpent  of  stone 
armed  with  fangs.*  Some  Spaniards,  tempted  by  curiosity  to  go 
into  that  diabolical  temple,  afterwards  confessed  the  horror  which 
they  felt  upon  entering  it.  Among  other  temples  there  was  one 
called  Llhuicatitlan,  dedicated  to  the  planet  Venus,  in  which  was  a 
great  pillar  with  the  figure  of  that  star  printed  or  engraved  upon 
it,  near  which,  at  the  time  of  her  appearance,  they  sacrificed  pris- 
oners. 

Among  the  remarkable  buildings  within  this  area  besides  the 
four  arsenals  over  the  four  gates,f  there  was  another  near  the 
temple  Tezcatcalli  (house  of  mirrors),  so  called  from  its  walls  being 
covered  with  mirrors  on  the  inside.  There  was  another  small 
temple  called  Teccizcilli,  all  adorned  with  shells.  There  were 
ponds  in  which  the  priests  bathed,  and  fountains,  the  waters  of 
which  they  drank.  In  the  pond,  called  Tezcapan,  many  bathed 
in  obedience  to  a  particular  vow  made  to  the  gods.  The  water  of 
one  of  the  fountains,  called  Toxpalatl,  was  esteemed  holy ;  it  was 
drank  only  at  the  most  solemn  feasts,  and  no  person  was  allowed 
to  taste  it  at  any  other  time. 

Particular  apartments  were  destined  for  the  keeping  of  idols. 
Among  the  buildings  most  striking  from  their  singularity  was  a 
great,  prison-like  cage,  in  which  they  kept  the  idols  of  the  con- 
quered nations,  as  if  imprisoned.  In  some  other  buildings  of  this 

*  Cba<Zpantli  serpents-wall,  and  Coatl  in  Quetzalcoa</,  signifies  serpent, 
t  Not  represented   in  the  pictures  of    the  enclosure.     Eather  an  awkward 
place  for  an  arsenal.     Diaz  does  not  mention  them. 


126  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

kind  they  preserved  the  heads  of  those  who  had  been  sacrificed, 
some  in  which  were  nothing  but  heaps  of  bones  piled  upon  one 
another.  In  others  the  heads  were  arranged  in  regular  order  upon 
poles  or  fixed  against  the  walls,  forming  by  the  variety  of  their 
disposition  a  spectacle  not  less  curious  than  horrible.  The  greatest 
of  these  buildings,  called  Huitzompan,  although  not  within  the 
great  wall,  was  but  a  little  way  from  it,  over  against  the  principal 
gate.  This  was  a  prodigious  rampart  of  earth,  longer  than  it  was 
broad,  in  the  form  of  a  half-pyramid.  In  the  lowest  part  it  was 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four  feet  long.  The  ascent  to  the  plain 
upon  top  of  it  was  by  a  stair  of  thirty  steps.  Upon  that  plain 
were  erected,  about  four  feet  asunder,  more  than  seventy  very  long 
beams,  bored  from  top  to  bottom.  By  these  holes  sticks  were 
,  passed  across  from  one  beam  to  another,  and  upon  each  of  them  a 
certain  number  of  heads  were  strung  by  the  temples.  Upon  the 
steps  also  of  the  stair  there  was  a  head  betwixt  every  stone,  and 
at  each  end  of  the  same  edifice  was  a  tower  which  appeared  to 
have  been  made  only  of  skulls  and  lime.  As  soon  as  a  head 
began  to  crumble  with  age,  the  priest  supplied  its  place  with  a 
fresh  one  from  the  bone-heaps,  in  order  to  preserve  the  due  num- 
ber and  arrangement.  The  skulls  of  ordinary  victims  were  stripped 
of  the  scalp,  but  those  of  men  of  rank  and  great  warriors  they 
endeavored  to  preserve  with  the  skin  and  beard  and  hair  entire, 
which  served  only  to  render  more  frightful  these  trophies  of  their 
barbarous  superstition.  The  number  of  heads  preserved  in  this 
and  such  other  buildings  is  so  great,  that  some  of  the  Spanish 
conquerors  took  the  trouble  of  reckoning  up  those  upon  the  steps 
of  this  building  a»d  upon  the  files  betwixt  the  beams,  and  found 
them  amount  to  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand.* 

Besides  these  temples,  there  were  others  scattered  in  different 
quarters  of  the  city.  Some  authors  make  the  number  of  temples 
in  that  capital  (comprehending,  as  may  be  imagined,  even  the 
smallest),  amount  to  two  thousand,  and  that  of  the  towers  to 
three  hundred  and  sixty,  but  we  do  not  know  that  any  one  ever 
actually  counted  them.  There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that 
they  were  very  numerous,  and  among  them  seven  or  eight  distin- 
guished for  their  size  ;  but  that  of  Tlatelolco,  consecrated  likewise 
to  Huitzilopochtli,  rose  above  them  all. 

Out  of  the  capital  the  most  celebrated  were  those  of  Tezcuco, 
Cholula,  and  Teotihuacan.  The  lofty  pyramid  of  Cholula,  raised 

*  This  horrible  and  disgusting  exhibition  of  human  bones  and  skulls  is  not 
peculiar  to  Mexico  ;  such  horrors  are  found  in  Europe,  and  may  be  introduced 
into  the  United  States. 


The  fieli  iscovereoLuuith  trees, 
,  nopals  ,  and,  maguey 3 . 
There  aw  also  numerou«  ves- 
tiges   of  Maw.ud.6 ,  no!  mcUcated. 


M.ryram.ia.  01  aioon,.  j^g 
B .  A  a  hiuje  mam  of  ^a-^^5 


w-46yA8.aad.20  in 
in,  circumference. 
C.  THE  large  stone  Til 
lar  firensnTed.  iittlie 
onlhe  n«rt 


PLAK 

OF  THE. 

RUINS  OF  THE  PYRAMIDS 


TEOTEHUACAN; 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  127 

by  the  Toltecas,  remains  to  this  day,  in  that  place  where  there  was 
formerly  a  temple  consecrated  to  that  false  deity,  and  now  is  a 
holy  sanctuary  of  the  Mother  of  the  true  God ;  but  the  pyramid, 
from  its  great  antiquity,  is  so  covered  with  earth  and  bushes  that 
it  seems  more  like  a  natural  eminence  than  an  edifice.  Its  cir- 
cumference in  the  lower  part  is  less  than  half  a  mile.  One  may 
ascend  to  the  top  by  a  path  made  in  a  spiral  direction  around  the 
pyramid,  and  I  went  up  on  horseback  in  1744. 

The  famous  edifices  of  Teotihuacan  [12],  about  three  miles  south 
from  that  place,  and  more  than  twenty  from  Mexico,  towards 
Greco,  still  subsist.  These  immense  buildings,  which  served  as  a 
model  for  the  temples  of  that  country,  were  two  temples  conse- 
crated, the  one  to  the  Sun,- and  the  other  to  the  Moon,  represented 
by  two  idols  of  monstrous  bulk,  made  of  stone  and  covered  with 
gold.  That  of  the  sun  had  a  great  concavity  in  the  breast,  and  an 
image  of  that  planet,  of  the  purest  gold,  fixed  in  it.  The  con- 
querors possessed  themselves  of  the  gold ;  the  idols  were  broken 
by  order  of  the  first  bishop  of  Mexico.  The  base  or  inferior  body 
of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  is  twenty-eight  perches  long  and  eighty- 
six  broad,  and  the  height  of  the  whole  building  is  in  proportion.* 
That  of  the  Moon  is  eighty-six  perches  long  at  the  base  and  sixty- 
three  broad.  Each  of  these  temples  is  divided  into  four  bodies, 
and  as  many  stairs,  which  are  arranged  in  the  same  manner  with 
those  of  the  great  Temple  of  Mexico,  but  cannot  now  be  traced, 
partly  from  their  ruinous  condition  and  partly  from  the  great 
quantity  of  earth  with  which  they  are  everywhere  covered.  Round 
these  edifices  are  scattered  several  little  hills,  which  are  supposed 
to  have  been  as  many  lesser  temples,  dedicated  to  the  other  planets 
and  stars ;  and  from  this  place  being  so  full  of  religious  buildings, 
antiquity  gave  it  the  name  of  Teotihuacan.f 

The  description  of  the  House  of  the  Sun  and  of  the  House  of 
the  Moon,  by  Brantz  Mayer,  is  as  follows :  "  Ascending  the  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one  feet  of  the  House  of  the  Sun,  we  reach 
a  level  platform  on  the  summit,  whence  a  charming  prospect 
extends  for  many  miles  to  the  south  and  east  over  cultivated 
fields.  At  the  southern  base  of  the  pyramid,  which  measures 
six  hundred  and  eighty-two  feet,  there  are  four  small  mounds, 
and.  beyond  these,  there  is  a  range  of  lesser  tumuli  running  to- 
wards an  elevated  square  of  mounds,  lying  between  the  stream 

*  "Cav  Boturini  measured  their  height ;  but  when  he  wrote  his  book  he  had 
not  the  measure  with  him ;  yet  he  thinks  he  found  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  to 
have  been  two  hundred  Castilian  cubits  high  ;  that  is,  thirty-six  perches." 

f  Clavigero. 


128  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

west  of  Teotihuacan  and  the  present  road  to  Otumba.  On  the  west 
front,  five  tumuli  surround  an  oval  mound,  whose  centre  is  de- 
pressed, and  all  of  these  jut  out  westwardly  towards  a  line  of  sim- 
ilar grave-like  elevations  lying  on  both  sides  of  the  avenue  that 
leads  to  the  House  of  the  Moon.  This  road  is  the  Micoatl,  or  Path 
of  the  Dead. 

"  The  other  pyramid,  or  House  of  the  Moon,  is  smaller,  and,  like 
its  neighbor,  is  composed  of  rocks,  stones,  pottery  and  cement — 
covered  with  the  debris  of  obsidian  and  terra-cotta  images,  which 
lie  scattered  from  the  top  to  the  base  amid  the  tangled  aloes  and 
creepers  which  have  struck  their  roots  deeply  into  the  crevices. 
The  House  of  the  Sun  is  not  known  to  have  any  cavity  within  its 
body ;  but  in  the  House  of  the  Moon»  between  the  second  and 
third  terraces,  a  narrow  passage  has  been  detected,  through  which 
two  wells  or  sunken  chambers,  about  fifteen  feet  deep,  may  be 
reached  by  crawling  on  hands  and  knees  over  an  inclined  plain 
for  a  distance  of  about  eight  yards.  The  walls  of  this  cryp- 
tic entrance  and  of  the  sunken  chambers  are  made  of  the  com- 
mon sun-dried  bricks;  but  there  are  no  remains  of  sculpture,  paint- 
ing or  bodies  to  reward  an  antiquarian  for  groping  through  the 
dark  and  dusty  aperture. 

"  South  of  this  pyramid  of  the  Moon  is  the  Micoatl,  or  Path  of 
the  Dead.  Two  elliptical  elevations  rise  at  the  southeast  and 
southwest  corners  of  the  Teocalli,  upon  each  of  which  there  are 
three  similar  mounds.  Four  circular  and  one  square  mound  lie 
within  the  area  of  this  enclosure,  and  the  whole  appears  to  form 
a  massive  portal  of  tumuli  to  the  majestic  pyramid.  A  long  double 
line  of  minor  mounds  stretch  away  to  the  south  on  the  sides  of 
the  avenue  until  all  traces  of  them  are  lost  in  the  field  in  front  of 
the  Temple  of  the  Sun,  with  whose  groups  of  tumuli  this  path  was, 
in  all  likelihood,  formerly  united.  A  better  idea  of  the  localities 
of  these  remains  will  be  obtained  by  examining  the  plan,  which 
was  carefully  prepared  by  the  author  on  the  spot  in  1842. 

"  About  eighteen  miles  south  of  Cuernavaca,  in  the  State  of 
Mexico,  there  is  a  cerro,  or  hill,  known  as  Xochicalco,  or  the  '  hill 
of  flowers,'  whose  summit  is  occupied  by  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  stone  pyramid.  The  traveller  reaches  this  eminence 
after  travelling  over  a  wide  plain  intersected  by  deep  barrancas 
and  almost  entirely  denuded  of  trees  and  shrubbery.  The  base 
of  the  hill  is  surrounded  by  the  remains  of  a  deep,  wide  ditch, 
and  its  top  is  attained  by  five  spiral  terraces,  supported  by  walls 
of  stone  joined  with  cement.  At  suitable  distances  from  each 
other,  along  the  edge  of  this  winding  path,  are  the  remains  of 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  129 

bulwarks  fashioned  like  the  bastions  of  a  fortification.  On  the 
summit  there  is  a  wide,  extensive  level,  the  eastern  part  of  which 
is  occupied  by  three  truncated  cones  resembling  the  smaller 
mounds  found  among  the  pyramids  of  Teotihuacan.  On  the 
other  three  sides  of  the  esplanade  there  are  other  masses  of  stones 
which  may  have  also  been  portions  of  smaller  tumuli.  The  stones 
of  which  these  lesser  mounds  were  constructed  have  evidently 
been  nicely  shaped  and  covered  with  a  coat  of  stucco. 

"  Passing  upward,  amid  tangled  trees  and  vines,  along  the  last 
terrace  and  through  the  cornfield  that  is  cultivated  on  the  plain 
at  top  by  an  Indian  ranchero,  the  traveller  at  length  stands  before 
the  remains  of  the  elegant  structure  that  once  crowned  the  sum- 
mit with  its  carved  and  massive  architecture.  The  reports  of 
engineers  who  visited  this  pyramid  in  years  long  past,  and  the 
legend  of  the  neighborhood,  declared  that  it  originally  consisted 
of  five  stories,  placed  upon  each  other  at  regular  intervals  and 
separated  by  narrow  platforms.  But  of  all  these,  nothing  now 
remains  except  portions  of  the  first  body,  which  is  formed  of  cut 
porphyry,  and  covered  with  singular  emblems. 

"  The  neighboring  planters  used  it  as  a  quarry,  from  which  they 
supplied  the  wants  of  their  estates.  In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  fine  terraces  were  yet  perfect.  But,  as  the  country 
became  settled  in  the  neighborhood,  the  farmers  began  to  pilfer 
from  the  mass,  and  not  long  before  we  visited  it,  in  1842,  an 
adjacent  landowner  had  carried  off  large  loads  of  the  sculptured 
stones  to  build  a  dam  in  a  neighboring  ravine.* 

"  The  story  of  this  pyramid,  that  has  been  thus  far  spared,  is 
rectangular,  and  facing  north,  south,  east,  or  west,  in  exact  corre- 
spondence with  the  cardinal  points.  It  measures  sixty-four  feet 
on  its  northern  front  above  the  plinth,  and  fifty-eight  on  the  west- 
ern. The  distance  between  the  plinth  and  the  frieze  is  about  ten 
feet ;  the  breadth  of  the  frieze  is  three  feet  and  a  half,  and  the 
height  of  the  cornice  one  foot  and  five  inches.  The  most  perfect 
portion  is  the  northern  front,  and  here  the  carving  in  relief,  which 
is  between  three  and  four  inches  deep,  is  most  distinctly  visible. 
The  massive  stones — some  of  which  are  seven  feet  eleven  inches 
long  by  two  feet  nine  inches  wide — are  all  laid  upon  each  other 
without  cement.  The  weighty  materials  were  drawn  from  a  con- 

*  Such  has  been  the  fate  of  many  relics  of  antiquity.  After  civilization  ceases 
barbarism  succeeds,  and  the  relics  of  antiquity  supply  present  necessities,  and 
become  the  material  for  new  structures.  The  ruins  of  one  age  supplies  another. 
Thus  Babel  of  Babylon  and  the  Pyramids  of  Egypt  served  the  purposes  of 
after  ages. 

9 


130  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

siderable  distance,  and  borne  up  a  hill  three  hundred  feet  in 
height  without  the  use  of  horses.  Few  nations  have  probably 
devoted  more  time  and  toil  to  a  work  which  was,  perhaps,  partly 
religious  and  partly  defensive. 

"  It  appears  from  good  authority,  and  from  the  report  of  the 
neighborhood,  that  the  hilj  itself  was  partly  hollowed  into  cham- 
bers. Some  years  since  a  party  of  gentlemen,  under  the  orders 
of  the  Government,  explored  these  subterranean  streets,  and  after 
groping  through  dark  and  narrow  passages,  whose  side-walls  were 
covered  with  hard  and  glistening  grey  cement,  they  came  to  three 
entrances  between  two  enormous  pillars  cut  from  the  rock  of  which 
the  hill  is  formed.  Through  these  portals  they  entered  a  cham- 
ber whose  roof  was  a  cupola  of  regular  shape,  built  of  stones 
placed  in  circles,  while  at  the  top  of  the  dome  was  an  aperture 
which  probably  led  to  the  surface  of  the  earth  or  the  summit  of 
the  pyramid."* 

In  the  following  extract  from  Humboldt's  "  New  Spain,1'  in 
which  is  given  an  account  of  Teotihuacan,  Xochicalco,  etc.,  not  only 
is  given  the  measure  in  inches  by  Humboldt,  but  also  their  equiva- 
lent in  English  feet,  by  the  translator  of  that  work  : 

The  only  ancient  monuments  in  the  Mexican  valley,  which, 
from  their  size  or  their  masses,  can  strike  the  eyes  of  an  European, 
are  the  remains  of  two  pyramids  of  Teotihuacan,  situated  to  the 
northeast  of  the  lake  of  Tezcuco,  consecrated  to  the  sun  and  moon, 
which  the  Indians  called  Tonatiuh  Ytzaqual,  house  of  the  sun,  and 
and  Mttzli  Ytzaqual,  house  of  the  moon.  According  to  the  meas- 
urements made  in  1803  by  a  young  Mexican  savant,  Dr.  Oteyza, 
the  first  pyramid,  which  is  the  most  southern,  has  in  its  present 
state  a  base  of  two  hundred  and  eight  metres  (six  hundred  and 
eighty-two  English  feet)  in  length  and  fifty-five  metres  (one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  feet)  of  perpendicular  elevation.  The  second, 
the  pyramid  of  the  moon,  is  eleven  metres  (thirty-six  feet)  lower, 
and  its  base  is  much  less.  These  monuments,  according  to  the 
accounts  of  the  first  travellers,  and  from  the  form  which  they  yet 
exhibit,  were  the  models  of  the  Aztec  teocallis.  The  nations  whom 
the  Spaniards  found  settled  in  New  Spain  attribute  the  pyramids 
of  Teotihuacan  to  the  Toultec  nation,f  consequently  the  construc- 
tion goes  back  to  the  eighth  or  ninth  century,  for  the  kingdom  of 
Tolula  lasted  from  607  to  1031.  The  faces  of  these  edifices  are  to 


*  Brantz  Mayer's  "  History  of  Mexico." 

f  Sigiienza,  however,  believes  them   to  be  the  work   of  the  Olmec   nation. 
If  this  be  true,  these  monuments  would  be  still  older. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  131 

within  fifty-two  seconds  exactly  placed  from  north  to  south  and 
from  east  to  west.  Their  interior  is  clay  mixed  with  small  stones. 
This  kerriel  is  covered  with  a  thick  wall  of  porous  amygdaloid.  We 
perceive,  besides,  traces  of  a  bed  of  lime,  which  covers  the  stones 
on  the  outside.  They  formed  four  layers,  of  which  three  only  are 
now  perceivable;  the  injuries  of  time  and  the  vegetation  of  the 
cactus  and  argives  have  exercised  their  destructive  influence  on 
the  exterior  of  these  monuments.  A  stair  of  large  hewn  stones 
formerly  led  to  their  tops,  where,  according  to  the  accounts  of  the 
first  travellers,  were  statutes  covered  with  very  thin  laminse  of 
gold.  Each  of  the  four  principal  layers  were  divided  into  small 
gradations  of  a  metre  (three  feet  three  inches)  in  height,  of  which 
the  edges  are  still  distinguishable,  which  were  covered  with  frag- 
ments of  obsidian,  that  were  undoubtedly  the  edge  instruments 
with  which  the  Toultec  and  Aztec  priests,  in  their  barbarous  sac- 
rifices, opened  the  chests  of  the  human  victims.  What  is  very  re- 
markable (especially  if  we  call  to  mind  the  assertion  of  Pecocke 
as  to  the  symmetrical  position  of  the  lower  pyramids  of  Egypt)  is 
that  around  the  houses  of  the  sun  and  moon  at  Teotihuacan  we 
find  a  group,  I  may  say  a  system,  of  pyramids  of  scarcely  nine  or 
ten  metres  (twenty-nine  or  thirty-two  feet)  elevation.  These 
monuments,  of  which  there  are  several  hundreds,  are  disposed  in 
very  large  streets,  which  follow  exactly  the  direction  of  the  par- 
allels and  of  the  meridians,  and  which  terminate  in  the  four  faces 
of  the  two  great  pyramids.  The  lesser  pyramids  are  more  fre- 
quent towards  the  southern  side  of  the  temple  of  the  moon  than 
towards  the  temple  of  the  sun,  and,  according  to  the  tradition  of 
the  country,  they  were  dedicated  to  the  stars.  It  appears  certain 
enough  that  they  served  as  burying-places  for  the  chiefs  of  tribes. 
All  the  plain  which  the  Spaniards  called  Llano  de  los  Cues  bore 
formerly  in  the  Aztec  and  Toultec  languages  the  name  Micoatl,  or 
road  of  the  dead. 

Another  ancient  monument  is  the  military  entrenchment  of 
Xochicalco,  situated  to  the  south-southwest  of  the  town  Cuerna- 
vaca,  near  Tetlama.  It  is  an  insulated  hill  of  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  metres  of  elevation,  surrounded  with  trenches  and  di- 
vided by  the  hand  of  man  into  five  terraces  covered  with  masonry. 
The  whole  forms  a  truncated  pyramid,  of  which  the  four  faces  are 
exactly  laid  down  according  to  the  four  cardinal  points.  The 
porphyry  stones  with  basaltic  bases  a.re  of  a  very  regular  cut,  and 
are  adorned  with  hieroglyphical  figures,  among  which  are  to  be 
seen  crocodiles  spouting  water,  and,  what  is  very  curious,  men  sit- 


132  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

ting  cross-legged  in  the  Asiatic  manner.  The  platform  of  this  ex- 
traordinary monument  contains  more  than  nine  thousand  square 
metres  (ninety-six  thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  square 
feet),  and  exhibits  the  ruins  of  a  small  square  edifice,  which  un- 
doubtedly served  for  a  last  retreat  to  the  besieged. 

The  table-land  of  Puebla  exhibits  remarkable  vestiges  of  an- 
cient Mexican  civilization.  The  fortifications  of  Tlaxcallan  are 
of  a  construction  posterior  to  that  of  the  great  pyramid  of  Cho- 
lula.  This  pyramid  consists  of  four  stages,  that  is,  in  its  present 
state,  the  perpendicular  elevation  is  only  fifty-four  metres  (one 
hundred  and  seventy-seven  feet),  and  the  horizontal  breadth  of 
the  base  four  hundred  and  thirty-nine  metres  (one  thousand  four 
hundred  and  twenty -three  feet) ;  its  sides  are  very  exactly 
in  the  direction  of  the  meridians  and  parallels,  and  it  is  con- 
structed (if  we  may  judge  from  the  perforation  made  a  few  years 
ago  in  the  north  side)  of  alternate  strata  of  brick  and  clay.  These 
data  are  sufficient  for  our  recognition  in  the  construction  of  this 
edifice  the  same  model  observed  in  the  form  of  the  pyramids  of 
Teotihuacan.  They  suffice  also  to  prove  the  great  analogy  between 
these  brick  monuments  erected  by  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Anahuac  and  the  Temple  of  Belus  at  Babylon  and  the  pyramids 
of  Darfeur,  near  Sakhara,  in  Egypt. 

The  platform  of  the  truncated  pyramid  of  Cholula  has  a  sur- 
face of  forty-two  hundred  metres,  forty-five  thousand  two  hun- 
dred and  eight  square  feet.  The  teocalli  is  exactly  the  same 
height  as  Tonatiuh  Ytzaqual  of  Teotihuacan,  and  it  is  three  metres 
higher  than  the  Mycerinus,  the  third  of  the  great  Egyptian  pyra- 
mids of  the  group  of  Ghize.  As  to  the  apparent  length  of  its  base, 
it  exceeds  that  of  all  the  edifices  of  the  same  description  hitherto 
found  by  travellers  in  the  old  continent,  and  is  almost  the  double 
of  that  of  the  great  pyramid  known  by  the  name  Cheops.  Those 
who  wish  to  form  a  clear  idea  of  the  great  mass  of  this  Mexican 
monument  from  a  comparison  with  objects  more  generally  known, 
may  imagine  a  square  four  times  the  dimensions  of  the  Place 
Vendome  covered  with  a  heap  of  bricks,  of  twice  the  elevation  of 
the  Louvre.  We  know  not  the  ancient  height  of  this  extraordi- 
nary monument. 

I  shall  here  subjoin  the  true  dimensions  of  the  three  great 
pyramids  of  Ghize,  from  the  interesting  work  of  M.  Grobert,  the 
dimensions  of  the  brick  pyramidal  monuments  of  Sakhara,  in 
Egypt,  and  of  Teotihuacan  and  Cholula,  in  Mexico.  The  numbers 
are  French  feet  (a  French  foot=  1.060  English). 


CHAP.  XIII.] 


OF    AMERICA. 


133 


STONE  PYRAMIDS. 

BRICK  PYRAMIDS. 

Cheops. 

Cephren. 

Myceri- 
nus. 

Of  Five 
Stages  in 
Egypt, 
near 
Sakhara. 

Of  Four  Stages  in 
Mexico. 

Teotihu- 
acan. 

Cholula. 

Height  

448 

398 

102 

150 

171 

172 

Length  of  base  

728 

655 

280 

210 

645 

1355 

If  the  province  of  Oaxaca  contains  no  monuments  of  ancient 
Aztec  architecture  equally  astonishing  from  their  dimensions  as 
the  teocalli  of  Cholula  and  Teotihuacan  and  Papantla,  it  contains 
the  ruins  of  edifices  more  remarkable  for  their  symmetry  and  the 
elegance  of  their  ornaments.  The  walls  of  the  palace  of  Mitla  are 
decorated  with  Grecques,  and  labyrinths  in  mosaic  of  small  por- 
phyry stones.  We  perceived  in  them  the  same  design  which  we 
admire  in  the  vases  falsely  called  Tuscan,  as  in  the  frise  of  the 
old  Temple  of  Deus  Rediculus,  near  the  grotto  of  the  nymph 
Egeria,  at  Rome. 

The  village  of  Mitla  was  formerly  called  Miguitlan,  which  sig- 
nifies in  the  Mexican  language  a  place  of  sadness.  The  Tzapotic 
Indians  call  it  Leoba,  which  means  a  tomb.  In  fact,  the  palace 
of  Mitla  was  constructed  over  the  tombs  of  the  kings.  It  was  an 
edifice  to  which  the  sovereign  retired  for  some  time  on  the  death 
of  a  son,  a  wife,  or  a  mother.  The  palace,  or  rather  the  tombs  of 
Mitla  form  three  edifices,  symmetrically  placed  in  an  extremely 
romantic  situation.  The  principal  edifice  is  in  best  preservation, 
and  is  nearly  forty  metres,  one  hundred  and  thirty-two  feet,  in 
length.  A  stair  formed  in  a  pit  leads  to  a  subterranean  apartment 
of  twenty-seven  metres  in  length  and  eight  in  breadth  (eighty- 
eight  feet  by  twenty-six).  This  gloomy  apartment  is  covered  with 
the  same  Grecques  which  ornament  the  exterior  walls  of  the 
edifice. 

But  what  distinguishes  the  ruins  of  Mitla  from  all  other  re- 
mains of  Mexican  architecture  are  six  porphyry  columns,  which 
are  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  hall,  and  support  the  ceiling.  These 
columns,  almost  the  only  ones  found  in  the  ancient  architecture 
of  the  new  continent,  bear  strong  marks  of  the  infancy  of  the  art. 
They  have  neither  base  nor  capitals.  A  simple  contraction  of  the 
upper  part  is  only  to  be  remarked.  Their  total  height  is  five 
metres,  but  their  shaft  is  of  one  piece  of  amphibolous  porphyry. 


134  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.   XIII. 

Broken-down  fragments,  for  ages  heaped  together,  conceal  more 
than  a  third  of  the  height  of  these  columns.* 

The  distribution  of  the  apartments  in  the  interior  of  this  singu- 
lar edifice  bears  a  striking  analogy  to  what  has  been  remarked  in 
the  monuments  of  Upper  Egypt,  drawn  by  M.  Denon.  M.  de 
Laguna  found  in  the  ruins  of  Mitla  curious  paintings  representing 
warlike  trophies  and  sacrifices. 

In  the  northern  part  of  the  intendancy  of  Vera  Cruz,  west  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Rio  Tecolutla,  at  two  leagues  distance  from  the 
great  Indian  village  of  Papantla,  we  met  with  a  pyramidal  edifice 
of  great  antiquity.  The  pyramid  of  Papantla  remained  unknown 
to  the  first  conquerors.  It  is  situated  in  the  midst  of  a  thick 
forest  called  Tajin  in  the  Totonic  language.  The  Indians  con- 
cealed this  monument,  the  object  of  an  ancient  veneration,  for 
centuries  from  the  Spaniards,  and  it  was  only  discovered  acci- 
dentally by  some  hunters  about  thirty  years  ago. 

The  pyramid  of  Papantla  is  not  constructed  of  bricks  or  clay 
mixed  with  stones  and  faced  with  a  wall  of  amygdaloid,  like  the 
pyramids  of  Cholula  and  Teotihuacan ;  the  only  materials  em- 
ployed are  immense  stones  of  a  porphyretical  shape.  Mortar  is 
distinguished  on  the  seams.  The  edifice,  however,  is  not  so 
remarkable  for  its  size  as  for  its  symmetry,  the  polish  of  the 
stones,  and  the  great  regularity  of  their  cut.  The  base  of  the 
pyramid  is  an  exact  square,  each  side  being  twenty-five  metres — 
eighty-two  feet — in  length.  The  perpendicular  height  appears 
not  to  be  more  than  from  sixteen  to  twenty  metres  (fifty-two  to 
sixty-five  feet).  This  monument  is  composed  of  several  stages. 
Six  are  still  distinguishable,  and  a  seventh  appears  to  be  con- 
cealed by  the  vegetation  with  which  the  sides  of  the  pyramid  are 
covered.  A  great  stair  of  fifty-seven  steps  conducts  to  the  trun- 
cated top  of  the  teocalli,  where  the  human  victims  were  sacrificed. 
On  each  side  of  the  stair  is  a  smaller  stair.  The  facing  of  the 
stories  is  adorned  with  hieroglyphics,  in  which  serpents  and 
crocodiles  carved  in  relief  are  discernible.  Each  story  contains  a 
great  number  of  square  niches,  symmetrically  distributed.  In  the 
first  story  we  reckoned  twenty-four  on  each  side ;  in  the  second 
twenty ;  and  in  the  third  sixteen.  The  number  of  these  niches  in 

*  Amongst  the  monuments  of  ancient  architecture  which  are  extant  in  the 
Mexican  empire,  the  edifices  of  Mictlan,  in  Mizteca,  are  very  celebrated.  There 
are  many  things  about  them  worthy  of  admiration,  particularly  a  large  hall, 
the  roof  of  which  is  supported  by  various  cylindrical  columns  of  stone,  eighty 
feet  high,  and  about  twenty  in  circumference,  each  of  them  consisting  of  a  single 
stone.— :Clavigero's  "History  of  Mexico,"  vol.  i.,  page  420. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  135 

the  body  of  the  pyramid  is  three  hundred  and  sixty-six,  and  there 
are  twelve  in  the  stair  towards  the  east.  The  Abbe  Marquez  sup- 
poses that  this  number  of  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  niches 
has  some  allusion  to  a  calendar  of  the  Mexicans.* 

Clavigero  says  :  "  The  number  of  temples  throughout  the  whole 
Mexican  empire  was  very  great.  Torquemada  thought  there  might 
be  forty  thousand ;  but  I  am  persuaded  they  would  far  exceed 
that  number,  if  we  should  take  the  less  ones  into  account;  for 
there  is  not  an  inhabitable  place  without  one  temple,  nor  any 
place  of  any  extent  without  a  considerable  number. 

"  The  architecture  of  the  great  temples  was,  for  the  most  part, 
the  same  with  that  of  the  great  Temple  of  Mexico  ;  but  there  were 
many,  likewise,  of  a  different  structure.  Many  consisted  of  a 
single  body  in  the  form  of  a  pyramid,  with  a  stair ;  others  of  ordi- 
nary bodies,  with  similar  stairs.^ 

"  The  superstition  of  these  people,  not  contented  with  such  a 
great  number  of  temples  in  their  cities,  villages,  and  hamlets, 
erected  many  altars  upon  the  tops  of  hills,  in  the  woods,  and  in 
the  streets,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging  the  idolatrous 
worship  of  travellers,  but  for  the  celebration  of  certain  sacrifices 
to  the  gods  of  mountains  and  other  rustic  deities.J 

"  Each  temple  had  its  own  lands  and  possessions,  and  even  its 
own  peasants  to  cultivate  them.  Thence  was  drawn  all  that  was 
necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  priests,  together  with  the 
wood  which  was  consumed  in  great  quantities  in  the  temples. 
In  the  kingdom  of  Acolhuacan,  those  twenty-nine  cities  which 
provided  necessaries  for  the  royal  palace,  were  likewise  obliged  to 
provide  for  the  temples.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  tract 
of  country  named  Teotlalpan  (land  of  the  gods)  was  so  named  from 
being  among  the  possessions  of  the  temples.  There  were,  besides, 
great  numbers  daily  of  free  offerings,  from  the  devout,  of  every 
kind  of  provisions  and  first  fruits,  which  were  presented  in  return- 
ing thanks  for  seasonable  rains  and  other  blessings  of  heaven. 
Near  the  temples  were  the  granaries,  where  all  the  grain  and  other 
provisions  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  priests  were  kept, 
and  the  overplus  was  annually  distributed  to  the  poor,  for  whom 
also  there  were  hospitals  in  the  larger  towns. 

"  We  may  form  some  conjecture  of  the  immense  number  of 

*  Humboldt's  "New  Spain." 

t  But  the  great  temple  was  modelled  after  temples  that  existed  when  the 
Mexicans  invaded  the  country,  those  of  Teotihuacan. 

J  In  this  the  Mexicans  were  not  different  from  the  Romans  and  other  nations 
of  antiquity,  not  even  from  some  of  the  present  ago. 


136  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

priests  in  the  Mexican  empire  from  the  number  within  the  area 
of  the  great  temple,  which  some  ancient  historians  tell  us  amounted 
to  five  thousand.  Nor  will  that  calculation  appear  surprising  when 
we  consider  that  in  that  place  there  were  four  hundred  priests  con- 
secrated to  the  service  of  the  god  Tezcatzencal  alone.  I  should 
not  think  it  rash  to  affirm  that  there  could  not  be  less  than  a 
million  of  priests  throughout  the  empire." 

There  were  several  different  orders  and  degrees  among  the 
priests.  The  chief  of  all  were  the  two  high-priests,  to  whom  they 
gave  the  names  of  Teoteuctli  (divine  lord)  and  Hueitcopixqui  (great 
priest).  The  high-priests  were  the  oracles  whom  the  kings  con- 
sulted in  all  the  most  important  affairs  of  the  state,  and  no  war 
was  ever  undertaken  without  their  approbation.  It  belonged  to 
them  to  anoint  the  king  after  his  election,  and  to  open  the  breasts 
and  tear  out  the  hearts  of  the  human  victims  at  the  most  solemn 
sacrifice.  The  high-priest  in  the  kingdom  of  Acolhuacan  was, 
according  to  some  historians,  always  the  second  son  of  the  king. 
Among  the  Totonicas  he  was  anointed  with  the  elastic  gum 
mixed  with  children's  blood,  and  this  they  called  the  divine  unc- 
tion. Some  authors  say  the  same  of  the  high-priest  of  Mexico. 

From  what  is  said  it  appears  that  the  high-priests  of  Mexico 
were  the  heads  of  their  religion  only  among  Mexicans,  and  not 
with  respect  to  the  other  conquered  nations ;  these,  even  after 
being  subjected  to  the  crown  of  Mexico,  still  maintained  their 
priesthood  independent. 

The  name  Teopixqui  was  given  to  the  priests,  which  means  the 
guard  or  minister  of  god. 

The  Ometochtli  was  the  chief  composer  of  the  hymns  which 
were  sung  at  festivals. 

The  Tlapixcatzin,  the  master  of  the  chapel,  not  only  appointed 
the  music,  but  superintended  the  singing  and  corrected  the 
singers. 

All  the  offices  of  religion  were  divided  among  the  priests. 
Some  were  the  sacrificers,  others  diviners,  some  were  the  com- 
posers of  hymns,  others  those  who  sung.  Among  the  singers  some 
sang  at  certain  hours  of  the  day,  others  sang  at  certain  hours  of 
the  night. 

Four  times  a  day  they  offered  incense  to  their  idols,  viz.,  at  day- 
break, at  mid-day,  at  sunset,  and  at  midnight.  To  the  Sun  they 
made  daily  new  offerings,  four  times  during  the  day  and  five  times 
during  the  night.  For  incense  they  generally  made  use  of  copal, 
or  some  other  aromatic  gum,  but  in  certain  festivals  they  em- 
ployed Chapopotli,  or  bitumen  of  Judea.  The  censers  were  com- 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  137 

monly  made  of  clay,  but  they  had  also  censers  of  gold.  The 
priests  never  shaved,  by  which  means  the  hair  of  many  of  them 
grew  so  long  as  to  reach  to  their  legs. 

The  priests  had  a  ridiculous  superstitious  practice  of  blowing 
with  their  breath  on  the  sick,  and  made  them  drink  water  which 
they  had  blessed  after  their  manner.  They  observed  many  fasts, 
and  great  austerity  of  life.  They  never  were  intoxicated  with 
drinking,  and  seldom  ever  tasted  wine.  Any  incontinence  among 
the  priests  was  severely  punished.  The  priest  who  at  Teotihuacan 
was  convicted  of  having  violated  his  chastity  was  delivered  up  by 
the  priests  to  the  people,  who  at  night  killed  him  by  the  bastinado. 

The  office  and  character  of  a  priest  among  the  Mexicans  was 
not  in  its  nature  perpetual,  nor  was  the  priesthood  confined  to 
the  male  sex.  The  first  thing  done  to  those  females  who  entered 
into  the  service  on  account  of  some  private  vow,  was  the  cutting 
off  of  their  hair.  Some  of  them  rose  about  two  hours  before  mid- 
night, others  at  midnight,  and  others  at  daybreak,  to  stir  up  and 
keep  the  fire  burning,  and  to  offer  incense  to  the  idols ;  and  al- 
though in  their  function  they  assembled  with  the  priests,  they  were 
separated  from  each  other,  the  men  forming  one  wing  and  the 
women  another,  both  under  the  view  of  their  superiors.  When  a 
virgin,  destined  from  her  infancy  to  the  service  of  the  gods,  arrived 
at  the  age  of  sixteen  or  eighteen,  her  parents  sought  for  a  husband 
to  her. 

Among  the  different  orders  or  congregations,  both  of  men  and 
women,  who  dedicated  themselves  to  the  worship  of  some  par- 
ticular gods,  that  of  Quetzalcoatl  is  worthy  to  be  mentioned. 
The  life  led  in  the  monasteries  or  colleges  of  either  sex  which  was 
devoted  to  this  imaginary  god  was  uncommonly  rigid  and  austere. 
Another  order,  called  Telpochtliztli,  or  the  youths,  on  account  of 
its  being  composed  of  youths  or  boys,  was  consecrated  to  Tezcat- 
lipoca,  was  attended  with  almost  the  same  ceremonies  as  that  of 
Quetzalcoatl.  Among  the  Totonicas  was  an  order  of  monks  de- 
voted to  their  goddess  Centeotl.  They  lived  in  great  retirement 
and  austerity.  Their  number  was  fixed,  and  when  any  one  died 
another  was  received  in  his  stead.* 

The  sacrifices  varied  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
festival.  In  general  the  victims  suffered  death  by  having  their 
breasts  opened,  but  others  were  drowned  in  the  lake ;  others  died 
of  hunger,  shut  up  in  caverns  of  the  mountains ;  and,  lastly,  some 
fell  in  the  gladiatorial  sacrifice.! 

*  None  but  men  above  sixty  years  of  age,  who  were  widowers,  were  admitted. 
f  Clavigero. 


138  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

In  the  province  of  Teutitlan  they  had  the  horrible  custom  of 
flaying  their  human  victims  and  wearing  their  skins.  In  those 
of  Uzila  and  Atlantlaca  when  they  lacked  slaves  for  the  sacrifices 
the  Cacique  had  the  right  to  choose  the  victims  from  among  his 
subjects. 

The  Mazatecs  had  an  annual  festival  which  cost  their  own 
nation  much  blood.  Some  days  beforehand  the  priests,  ascend- 
ing to  the  top  of  the  temple,  made  known  their  orders  to  the  peo- 
ple, to  warn  them  to  remain  in  their  houses.  They  also  scattered 
themselves  in  the  fields,  and  all  those  whom  they  took  were  marked 
on  the  head  to  serve  as  victims  of  sacrifice. 

The  Tuatecs  had  every  year  a  bloody  sacrifice.  They  put  to 
death  an  infant,  a  chicken,  and  some  other  animals,  and,  content- 
ing themselves  with  sprinkling  the  idols  with  their  blood,  they 
abandoned  the  bodies  to  the  birds  of  prey  ;  but  they  slew  out  of 
the  temple  a  number  of  slaves,  and  ate  the  carcasses  at  public 
feasts. 

The  Otemies  sacrificed  only  the  captives  they  made  in  war,  but 
they  cut  them  in  pieces,  cooked  them,  and  sold  them  in  the  public 
markets. 

At  the  sacrifice  in  the  great  temple  at  Mexico,  if  the  victim  was 
a  prisoner  of  war,  as  soon  as  he  was  sacrificed  they  cut  off  his 
head,  to  preserve  the  skull,  and  threw  the  body  down  the  stairs  to 
the  lower  area,  where  it  was  taken  up  by  the  officer  or  soldier  to 
whom  the  prisoner  had  belonged,  and  carried  to  his  house  to  be 
boiled  and  dressed  as  an  entertainment  for  his  friends.  If  he  was 
not  a  prisoner  of  war,  but  a  slave  purchased  for  sacrifice,  the  pro- 
prietor carried  off  the  carcass  from  the  altar  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. They  ate  only  the  legs,  thighs,  and  arms,  and  burnt  the 
rest,  or  preserved  it  for  food  for  the  wild  beasts  or  birds  of  prey  kept 
in  the  royal  palaces. 

The  religion  of  the  Mexicans  was  not  confined  to  these  sacri- 
fices :  offerings  were  made  of  various  kinds  of  animals.  They 
sacrificed  quails  and  falcons  to  their  god  Huitzilopochtli,  and 
hares,  rabbits,  deer,  and  coyotes  to  their  god  Mixeoatl.  They 
daily  made  an  offering  of  quail  to  the  sun.  Every  day,  as  the 
sun  was  about  to  rise,  several  priests,  standing  upon  the  upper 
area  of  the  temple  with  their  faces  towards  the  east,  each  with  a 
quail  in  his  hand,  saluted  that  luminary's  appearance  with  music, 
and  made  an  offering  of  the  quails,  after  cutting  off  their  heads. 
This  sacrifice  was  succeeded  by  the  burning  of  incense,  with  a 
loud  accompaniment  of  musical  instruments. 

They  also  made  offerings  of  various  kinds  of  plants,  flowers, 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  139 

jewels,  gums,  and  other  substances.  To  their  gods  Tlaloc  and 
Coatlicae  they  offered  the  first-blown  flowers,  and  to  Cintecatl  the 
first  maize  of  every  year.  They  made  oblations  of  bread,  various 
pastes,  and  ready -dressed  victuals  in  such  abundance  as  to  be  suf- 
ficient to  supply  all  the  ministers  of  the  temple.  Every  morning 
were  seen  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  innumerable  dishes  and  porringers 
of  boiling  food,  that  the  steam  arising  from  them  might  reach  the 
nostrils  of  the  idols  and  nourish  their  immortal  gods. 

The  most  frequent  oblation,  however,  was  that  of  copal.  All 
daily  burned  incense  to  their  idols ;  no  house  was  without  cen- 
sers ;  the  priests,  fathers  of  families,  and  judges  offered  incense 
to  the  four  principal  winds.  But  incense-offering  among  the 
Mexicans  and  other  nations  of  Anahuac  was  not  only  an  act  of 
religion  towards  their  gods,  but  also  a  piece  of  civil  courtesy  to 
lords  and  ambassadors. 

The  superstition  and  cruelties  of  the  Mexicans  were  imitated  by 
all  the  nations  which  they  conquered,  or  that  were  contiguous  to 
the  empire. 

Being  accustomed  to  bloody  sacrifices  of  their  prisoners,  they 
also  failed  not  to  shed  abundance  of  their  own  blood.  They 
mangled  their  flesh  as  if  it  had  been  insensible,  and  let  their  blood 
run  in  such  profusion  that  it  appeared  to  be  a  superfluous  fluid  of 
the  body.  The  effusion  of  blood  was  frequent  and  daily  with  some 
of  the  priests.  They  pierced  themselves  with  the  sharpest  spines 
of  the  aloe,  and  bored  several  parts  of  the  body,  particularly  their 
ears,  lips,  tongues,  and  the  fat  (fleshy  parts)  of  their  arms  and 
legs.  Through  the  holes  which  they  made  with  these  spines,  they 
introduced  pieces  of  cane,  the  first  of  which  were  small  pieces,  but 
every  time  this  penitential  suffering  was  repeated,  a  thicker  piece 
was  used.  The  blood  which  flowed  from  them  was  carefully  col- 
lected in  leaves  of  the  plant  acxojatl.  They  fixed  the  bloody  spines 
in  little  balls  of  hay,  which  they  exposed  upon  the  battlements  of 
the  walls  of  the  temple,  to  testify  the  penance  which  they  did  for 
the  people.  Those  who  exercised  such  severities  upon  themselves 
within  the  enclosure  of  the  great  Temple  of  Mexico  bathed  them- 
selves in  a  pond  that  was  formed  there,  which,  from  being  always 
tinged  with  blood,  was  called  Ezapan* 

A  festival  hardly  occurred  for  which  they  did  not  prepare  them- 

*  In  regard  to  self-inflicted  tortures,  they  were  not  as  great  as  those  volun- 
tarily suffered  at  the  feast  of  the  Sun  by  certain  western  Indian  tribes  of  North 
America,  though  infinitely  worse  than  flayellation.  To  bore  the  ears,  the  cartilage 
of  the  nostrils,  and  the  lip,  were  common  things  among  the  Indians.  It  was  done 
to  insert  what  they  considered  as  ornaments. 


140  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

selves  with  fasting  for  some  days,  more  or  less,  according  to  the 
prescription  of  their  rituals.  During  that  of  the  Sun,  the  king  re- 
tired into  a  certain  place  of  the  temple,  where  he  watched  and  shed 
blood  according  to  the  custom  of  the  nation.  Any  other  fasts 
bound  only  particular  persons. 

In  Mixteca  there  were  many  monasteries. 

FUNERAL  RITES. — AB  soon  as  any  person  died,  certain  masters 
of  funeral  ceremonies  were  called.  They  cut  a  number  of  pieces 
of  paper  with  which  they  dressed  the  corpse,  and  took  a  glass  of 
water,  with  which  they  sprinkled  the  head,  saying  that  was  the 
water  used  in  the  time  of  their  life.  They  then  dressed  it  in  a 
habit  suitable  to  the  rank,  wealth,  and  circumstances  attending  the 
death  of  the  party.  Gomera  has  well  observed,  they  wore  more 
garments  after  they  were  dead  than  while  they  were  living. 

With  the  habit,  they  gave  the  dead  a  jug  of  water,  which  was  to 
serve  on  the  journey  to  the  other  world,  and  also  at  successive  dif- 
ferent times,  different  pieces  of  paper,  mentioning  the  use  of  them. 
On  consigning  the  first  piece  to  the  dead,  they  said :  By  means  of 
this  you  will  pass  without  danger  between  the  two  mountains 
which  fight  against  each  other.  With  the  second  they  said :  By 
means  of  this  you  will  walk  without  obstruction  along  the  road 
which  is  defended  by  the  great  serpent.  With  the  third  :  By  this 
you  will  go  securely  through  the  place  where  there  is  the  crocodile 
Xochitonal.  The  fourth  was  a  passport  through  the  eight  deserts  ; 
the  fifth,  through  the  eight  hills  ;  and  the  sixth  was  given  to  pass, 
without  hurt,  through  the  sharp  wind,  so  violent  that  it  tore  up 
rocks,  and  so  sharp  that  it  cut  like  a  knife.* 

One  of  the  chief  ceremonies  at  funerals  was  the  killing  of  a  techi- 
chirf  a  domestic  animal  resembling  a  little  dog,  to  accompany  the 
deceased  in  their  journey  to  the  other  world.  They  fixed  a  string 
about  its  neck,  believing  that  necessary  to  enable  it  to  pass  the 
deep  river  of  Chiuhuahuapan  or  New  Waters.  They  buried  the 
techichi,  or  burned  it  along  with  the  body  of  its  master,  according 
to  the  kind  of  death  he  died.  After  burning  the  body,  they  gath- 
ered the  ashes  in  an  earthen  pot,  among  which,  according  to  the 
circumstances  of  the  deceased,  they  put  a  gem  of  more  or  less 
value,  which  they  said  would  serve  him  in  the  place  of  a  heart  in 
the  other  world.  They  buried  this  earthen  pot  in  a  deep  ditch, 
and  fourscore  days  after  made  oblations  of  bread  and  wine  over  it. 

*  It  is  probable  that  the  relatives  of  the  dead  paid  for  all  these  privileges. 

f  From  the  description,  the  techichi  appeared  to  be  the  hairless  dog  of  Mex- 
ico. The  Mexicans  used  its  flesh  for  food.  Dogs  were  the  favorite  food  for  In- 
dians. They  likewise  sacrificed  them  to  the  god  of  Storms. 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  141 

Such  were  the  funeral  rites  of  the  common  people  ;  but  at  the 
death  of  kings,  lords,  or  persons  of  high  rank,  some  peculiar  forms 
were  observed.  As  soon  as  a  king  of  Mexico  happened  to  die,  his 
death  was  published  in  great  form.  They  laid  the  corpse  upon 
beautiful,  curiously  wrought  mats,  which  was  attended  and 
watched  by  his  domestics.  Upon  the  fourth  or  fifth  day  after, 
when  the  lords  arrived,  who  brought  with  them  rich  dresses,  beau- 
tiful feathers,  and  slaves,  to  be  presented,  they  clothed  the  corpse 
in  fifteen  or  more  very  fine  habits  of  cotton  of  various  colors,  orna- 
mented it  with  gold,  silver  and  gems,  hung  an  emerald  at  the  upper 
lip,  which  was  to  serve  in  place  of  a  heart ;  covered  the  face  with 
a  mask,  and  over  the  habits  was  placed  the  ensigns  of  that  god  in 
whose  temple  or  area  the  ashes  were  to  be  buried.  They  cut  off 
some  of  the  hair,  which,  together  with  some  more  that  had  been 
cut  off  in  the  infancy  of  the  king,  they  preserved  in  a  little  box,  to 
perpetuate,  as  they  said,  the  memory  of  the  deceased.  Upon  the 
box  they  laid  an  image  of  the  deceased,  made  of  wood  or  of  stone. 
Then  they  killed  the  slave  who  was  his  chaplain,  who  had  had  the 
care  of  his  oratory  and  all  that  belonged  to  the  private  worship 
of  his  gods,  in  order  that  he  might  serve  him  in  the  same  office  in 
the  other  world. 

The  funeral  procession  came  next,  in  which  the  nobles  carried 
a  great  standard  of  paper  and  the  royal  arms  and  ensigns.  Upon 
their  arrival  at  the  lower  area  of  the  temple  the  high-priests, 
together  with  their  servants,  came  out  to  meet  the  corpse,  which, 
without  delay,  they  placed  upon  the  funeral  pile,  which  was  pre- 
pared there  for  that  purpose.  While  the  corpse  and  all  its  habits, 
the  arms  and  ensigns,  were  burning,  they  sacrificed  at  the  bottom 
of  the  stairs  of  the  temple  a  great  number  of  slaves,  of  those  which 
belonged  to  the  deceased,  and  also  of  those  which  had  been  pre- 
sented by  the  lords.  Along  with  the  slaves  they  likewise  sacrificed 
some  of  the  deformed  men  whom  the  king  had  collected  in  his 
palace  for  his  amusement,  in  order  that  they  might  give  him  the 
same  pleasure  in  the  other  world  ;  and,  for  the  same  reason,  they 
used  also  to  sacrifice  some  of  his  wives.  The  number  of  victims 
was  proportioned  to  the  grandeur  of  the  funeral,  and  amounted 
sometimes,  as  several  historians  affirm,  to  two  hundred.  Among 
the  other  sacrifices,  the  techichi  was  not  omitted ;  they  were  firmly 
persuaded  that,  without  such  a  guide,  it  would  be  impossible  to 
get  through  some  dangerous  ways  which  led  to  the  other  world. 

The  day  following  the  ashes  were  gathered,  and  the  teeth  which 
remained  entire ;  they  sought  carefully  for  the  emerald  which  had 
been  hung  to  the  upper  lip,  and  the  whole  was  put  into  the  box 


142  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIII. 

with  the  hair,  and  they  deposited  the  box  in  the  place  destined 
for  his  sepulchre.  The  four  following  days  they  made  oblations 
of  eatables  over  the  sepulchre ;  on  the  fifth  they  sacrificed  some 
slaves,  and  also  some  others  on  the  twentieth,  fortieth,  sixtieth, 
and  eightieth  day  after.  From  that  time  forward  they  sacrificed 
no  more  human  victims. 

The  bodies  of  the  dead  were,  in  general,  burned.  There  were 
no  fixed  places  for  burials.  Many  ordered  their  bodies  to  be 
buried  near  some  temple  or  altar,  some  in  fields,  and  others  in 
those  sacred  places  of  the  mountains  where  sacrifices  used  to  be 
made.  The  ashes  of  the  kings  and  lords  were,  for  the  most  part, 
deposited  in  the  towers  of  the  temples,  especially  those  of  the  great 
temple.  Close  to  Teotihuacan  there  were  many  temples ;  there 
were  also  innumerable  sepulchres.  The  tombs  of  those  whose 
bodies  had  been  buried  entire,  agreeable  to  the  testimony  of  the 
Anonymous  Conqueror,  who  saw  them,  were  deep  ditches  formed 
with  stone  and  lime,  within  which  they  placed  the  bodies  in  a 
sitting  posture  upon  low  seats,  together  with  the  instruments  of 
his  art  or  profession.  If  it  was  the  sepulchre  of  any  military  per- 
son, they  laid  a  shield  and  sword  by  him ;  if  a  woman  a  spindle, 
a  weaver's  shuttle,  and  a  xicalli — a  naturally-formed  vessel.  In 
the  tombs  of  the  rich  they  put  gold  and  jewels,  but  all  were  pro- 
vided with  eatables  for  the  long  journey  they  had  to  make.  The 
Spanish  conquerors,  knowing  of  the  gold  which  was  buried  with 
the  Mexican  "lords  in  their  tombs,  dug  up  several  and  found  con- 
siderable quantities  of  that  precious  metal.  Cortes  says,  in  his 
letters,  that  at  one  entry  which  he  made  into  the  capital  when  it 
was  besieged  by  his  army,  his  soldiers  found  fifteen  hundred  Cas- 
tellanos — that  is,  two  hundred  and  forty  ounces  of  gold — in  one 
sepulchre  which  was  in  the  tower  of  a  temple.  The  Anonymous 
Conqueror  says  also  that  he  was  present  at  the  digging  up  of 
another  sepulchre  from  which  they  took  about  three  thousand 
Castellanos.  ' , 

For  the  defence  of  places  they  made  use  of  various  kinds  of 
fortifications,  such  as  walls  and  ramparts,  with  their  breastworks, 
palisades,  ditches  and  entrenchments.  Concerning  the  city  of 
Quauhquechollan,  we  know  that  it  was  fortified  by  strong  stone 
walls,  about  twenty  feet  high  and  twelve  feet  in  thickness. 

The  conquerors,  who  describe  to  us  the  fortifications  of  this 
city,  make  mention  likewise  of  several  others,  among  which  is  the 
celebrated  wall  which  the  Tlascalans  built  on  the  eastern  bounda- 
ries of  the  republic,  to  defend  themselves  from  the  invasion  of  the 
Mexican  troops,  and  in  other  places.  This  wall,  which  stretched 


CHAP.  XIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  143 

from  one  mountain  to  another,  was  six  miles  in  length,  eight  feet 
in  height,  besides  the  breastworks,  and  eighteen  feet  in  thickness. 
It  was  made  of  stone  and  strong  fine  mortar.  There  was  but  one 
narrow  entrance,  about  eight  feet  broad  and  forty  paces  long. 
This  was  the  space  between  the  two  extremities  of  the  wall,  the 
one  of  which  encircled  the  other,  forming  two  semicircles  with 
one  common  centre.  There  are  still  some  remains  of  this  wall 
to  be  seen.* 

Quauhquechollan,  south,  distant  about  four  miles  from  Tepe- 
jacac,  was  a  city  containing  from  five  thousand  to  six  thousand 
families,  pleasantly  situated,  and  not  less  fortified  by  nature  than 
by  art.  It  was  naturally  defended  on  one  side  by  a  steep,  rocky 
mountain,  and  on  another  side  by  two  parallel-running  rivers. 
The  whole  of  the  city  was  surrounded  by  a  strong  wall  of  stone 
and  lime,  about  twenty  feet  high  and  twelve  broad,  with  a  breast- 
work all  round  of  about  three  feet  in  height.  There  were  but 
four  ways  to  enter,  at  those  places  where  the  extremities  of  the 
walls  were  doubled,  forming  two  semicircles  (overlapping  one  an- 
other), with  the  passage  between  them.  The  difficulty  of  the 
entrance  was  increased  by  the  elevation  of  the  site  of  the  city, 
which  was  almost  equal  to  the  height  of  the  wall  itself,  so  that  in 
order  to  enter,  it  was  necessary  to  ascend  by  some  very  steep  steps. 

There  are  also  still  to  be  seen  the  remains  of  an  ancient  fortress 
built  upon  the  top  of  a  mountain,  at  a  little  distance  from  the 
village  of  Molcaxac,  surrounded  by  four  walls,  placed  at  some 
distance  from  each  other,  from  the  base  of  the  mountain  unto  the 
top.  In  the  neighborhood  appeared  many  small  ramparts  of 
stone  and  lime,  and  upon  a  hill  two  miles  distant  from  the  moun- 
tain are  the  remains  of  some  ancient  and  populous  city,  of  which, 
however,  there  is  no  memory  among  historians.  About  twenty- 
five  miles  from  Cordova,  towards  the  north,  is  likewise  the  ancient 
fortress  of  Quauhtocho,  now  Guatusco,  surrounded  by  high  walls 
of  extremely  hard  stone,  to  which  there  is  no  entrance  but  by 
ascending  a  number  of  very  high  and  narrow  steps,  for  in  this 
manner  the  entrances  to  these  fortresses  were  formed.  From  the 
ruins  of  this  ancient  building,  which  is  now  overrun  with  bushes, 
a  Cordovan  gentleman  lately  dug  out  several  well-finished  statues 
of  stones,  for  the  ornament  of  his  house.  Near  the  ancient  city 

*  Francisco  Severio  Clavigero,  born  at  Vera  Cruz,  South  America,  about 
1720  ;  died  at  Cesena,  in  Italy,  October,  1793.  Cullen's  English  version  of 
Clavigero's  "History  of  Mexico"  in  Italian,  was  published  in  1787. — Chambers' s 
Encyclopedia. 


144  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIV. 

of  Tezcuco,  a  part  of  the  wall  which  surrounded  the  city  of  Coat- 
lichan  is  still  preserved. 

In  regard  to  the  Tlascalan  wall,  Bernal  Diaz  says:  ''We  came 
upon  an  enormous  entrenchment,  built  so  strongly  of  stone,  lime 
and  a  kind  of  hard  bitumen,  that  it  would  only  have  been  pos- 
sible to  break  it  down  by  means  of  pickaxes,  and  if  defended 
would  have  with  difficulty  been  taken.  We  halted  on  purpose 
to  inspect  this  fortification,  and  Cortes  inquired  of  the  Zocotlans 
for  what  purpose  it  stood  there.  They  told  him  it  was  built  there 
by  the  Tlascaians,  against  the  great  Montezuma,  with  whom  they 
were  continually  at  war,  to  protect  them  against  his  hostile  incur- 
sions." 

Torquemada  says  :  "  It  was  a  wall  of  twenty  feet  in  thickness ; 
that  it  could  be  defended  from  the  top ;  had  only  one  entrance, 
defended  by  other  works  within,  and  was  built  by  a  cacique  of 
the  country*  to  protect  the  boundaries  of  his  country  against 
the  incursions  of  the  Tlascaians.  But  the  most  singular  fortifica- 
tions of  Mexico  were  the  temples  themselves,  and  especially  the 
great  temple,  which  resembled  a  citadel.  The  wall  which  sur- 
rounded the  whole  of  the  temple,  the  five  arsenals  there  which 
were  filled  with  every  sort  of  defensive  and  offensive  arms,  and 
the  architecture  of  the  temple  itself,  which  rendered  the  ascent  to 
it  so  difficult,  give  us  clearly  to  understand  that  in  such  buildings 
policy  as  well  as  religion  had  a  share,  and  that  they  constructed 
them  not  only  from  motives  of  superstition,  but  likewise  for  the 
purpose  of  defence.  It  is  well  known,  from  their  history,  that 
they  fortified  themselves  in  their  temples  when  they  could  not 
hinder  the  enemy  from  entering  the  city,  and  from  them  har- 
assed them  with  arrows,  darts  and  stones. "f 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

The   Toltecs — Their   Migration — Their   Character — Their   Knowledge   of    As- 
tronomy— Their  National  Extinction  and  Their  Dispersion. 

THE  TOLTECS  THE  FIRST  SETTLERS  OF  ANAHUAC. 

THE  history  of  the  first  peopling  of  Anahuac  is  so  involved  in 
fable  that  it  is  altogether  impossible  to  discover  the  truth.  There 
cannot  be  a  doubt  that  the  men  who  first  peopled  that  country 

*  Whom  he  calls  Yztacmixtitlan. 
f  Clavigero. 


CHAP.  XIV.]  OF    AMERICA.  145 

came  originally  from  the  more  northern  parts  of  America,  where 
their  ancestors  had  been  settled  for  many  ages,  but  who  these 
first  inhabitants  were  at  the  time  of  their  emigration  is  entirely 
unknown. 

The  Toltecs  are  the  oldest  nation  of  which  we  have  any  knowl- 
edge, and  that  is  very  imperfect.  Being  banished,  as  they  tell  us, 
from  their  own  country,  Huehuetlapallan,  which  we  take  to  have 
been  in  the  kingdom  of  Tollan*  from  which  they  derived  their 
name,  and  situated  to  the  southwest  of  Mexico.  They  began  their 
journey  in  the  year  1,  Tecpatl — that  is,  in  the  year  596  A.D.  In 
every  place  to  which  they  came  they  remained  no  longer  than 
they  liked  it.  In  this  wandering  manner  did  they  travel,  always 
southward,  for  the  space  of  one  hundred  and  four  years,  till  they 
arrived  at  a  place  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Tollantzinco, 
about  fifty  miles  to  the  east  of  that  spot  where,  some  centuries 
after,  was  founded  the  famous  city  of  Mexico. 

They  were  led  and  commanded  upon  the  whole  journey  by 
certain  chiefs,  who  were  reduced  to  seven  by  the  time  they 
arrived  at  Tollantzinco.  They  did  not  choose,  however,  to  settle 
in  that  country.  In  less  than  twenty  years  after  they  went 
about  forty  miles  to  the  west,  where,  along  the  banks  of  a  river, 
they  founded  the  city  of  Tollan  or  Tula,  after  the  name  of  their 
native  country.  That  city,  the  oldest,  as  far  as  we  know,  in  Ana- 
huac,  is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  in  the  history  of  Mexico, 
and  was  the  capital  of  the  Toltecan  kingdom.  Their  monarchy 
began  in  the  year  607  A.D.  and  lasted  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  years. 

The  Toltecs  were  the  most  celebrated  people  of  Anahuac  for 
their  superior  civilization  and  skill  in  the  arts.  They  always 
lived  in  society,  collected  in  cities,  under  the  government  of  kings 
and  regular  laws.  They  were  not  very  warlike,  and  less  trained 
to  the  exercise  of  arms  than  to  the  cultivation  of  the  arts.  The 
nations  that  have  succeeded  them  have  acknowledged  themselves 
indebted  to  the  Toltecs  for  their  knowledge  of  the  culture  of  grain, 
cotton,  pepper,  and  other  useful  fruits.  They  had  the  art  of  cast- 
ing gold  and  silver  and  melting  them  into  whatever  form  they 
pleased,  and  acquired  the  greatest  reputation  from  cutting  all 
kinds  of  gems ;  but  nothing,  to  us,  raises  their  character  so  high 
as  their  having  been  the  inventors,  or,  at  least,  the  reformers  of 
that  system  of  the  arrangement  of  time  which  was  adopted  by  all 

*  "  Toltecotl,  in  Mexican,  signifies  a  native  of  Tollan,  as  Tlazcaltecotl  does  a 
native  of  Tlescala." 

10 


146  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIV. 

the  nations  of  Anahuac,  and  which  implies  numerous  observa- 
tions and  a  wonderfully  correct  astronomy. 

Boturini,  upon  the  faith  of  the  ancient  histories  of  the  Toltecas, 
says,  that  observing  in  their  own  country  of  Huehuetlapallan,  how 
the  solar  year  exceeded  the  civil  one,  by  which  they  reckoned, 
about  six  hours,  they  regulated  it  by  interposing  the  intercalary 
day  once  in  four  years,  which  they  did  more  than  a  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  era.  He  says,  besides,  that  in  the  year  660, 
under  the  reign  of  Ixtlalcuechahuac,  in  Tula,  a  celebrated  astrono- 
mer called  Huematzin  assembled,  by  the  king's  consent,  all  the 
wise  men  of  the  nation,  and  with  them  painted  that  famous  book 
called  Teoamoxtli,  or  Divine  Book,  in  which  were  represented  in 
very  plain  figures  the  origin  of  the  Indian,  their  journey  in  Asia,  their 
first  settlements  upon  the  continent  of  America,  the  founding  of 
the  kingdom  of  Tula,  and  their  progress  till  that  time.  There 
were  described  the  heavens,  the  planets,  the  constellations,  the 
Toltecan  calendar  with  its  cycles,  the  mythological  transforma- 
tions, in  which  were  included  their  moral  philosophy,  and  the 
mysteries  of  their  deities,  concealed  by  hieroglyphics  from  common 
understanding,  together  with  all  that  appertained  to  their  religion 
and  manners.* 

It  is  certain,  however  incredible  as  it  may  appear  to  the  critics 
of  Europe,  who  are  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  Americans  as  all 
equally  barbarous,  that  the  Mexicans  and  all  the  other  civilized 
nations  of  Anahuac  regulated  their  civil  year  according  to  the 
solar  by  means  of  the  intercalary  days,  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  Romans  did  after  the  Julian  arrangement;  and  that  this  accu- 
racy was  owing  to  the  skill  of  the  Toltecas.  Their  religion  was 
idolatrous,  and  they  appear  by  their  history  to  have  been  the  in- 
ventors of  the  greatest  part  of  the  mythology  of  the  Mexicans ; 
but  we  do  not  know  that  they  practiced  those  barbarous  and 
bloody  sacrifices  which  became  afterwards  so  common  among 
other  nations. 

The  Tezcucan  historians  believe  the  Toltecas  the  authors  of  that 
famous  idol,  representing  the  god  of  water,  placed  on  Mount 
Tlaloe.'f  It  is  certain  that  they  built  in  honor  of  their  beloved  god 

*  This  shows  they  must  have  been  highly  civilized  and  intelligent  when  they 
left  Asia,  or  that  they  made  wonderful  progress  in  the  short  space  of  fifty -seven 
years  from  the  founding  of  their  city  Tula,  in  Mexico. 

t  This  image  was  in  the  shape  of  a  man  sitting  on  a  white  and  very  light 
stone,  with  a  vessel  before  him  in  which  were  some  elastic  gum  and  a  variety  of 
seeds.  This  was  their  yearly  offering,  by  way  of  rendering  thanks  after  having 
had  a  favorable  harvest.  This  image  was  reckoned  the  oldest  in  that  country, 


CHAP.  XIV.]  OF    AMERICA.  147 

Quetzalcoatl,  the  highest  pyramid  of  Cholula,  and  probably  also 
the  famous  ones  of  Teotihuacan,  in  honor  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
which  are  still  in  existence,  though  much  disfigured. 

During  the  four  centuries  which  the  monarchy  of  the  Toltecas 
lasted,  they  multiplied  considerably,  extending  their  population 
every  way  in  numerous  and  large  cities,  but  the  direful  calamities 
that  happened  to  them  in  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Topiltzin 
gave  a  fatal  shock  to  their  prosperity  and  power.  For  several 
years  heaven  denied  to  them  the  necessary  showers  to  their  fields 
and  the  earth,  the  fruits  of  which  supported  them.  The  air,  in- 
fected with  mortal  contagion,  filled  daily  the  graves  with  the  dead, 
and  the  minds  of  those  surviving,  with  consternation  at  the  de- 
struction of  their  countrymen.  A  great  part  of  the  nation  died 
by  famine  and  sickness.  Topiltzin  died  in  the  second  year,  Tec- 
patl,  in  the  twentieth  of  his  reign,  which  was  probably  the  year  1052 
of  the  vulgar  era,  and  with  him  the  Toltecan  monarchy  concluded. 
The  wretched  remains  of  the  nation,  willing  to  save  themselves 
from  the  common  calamity,  sought  timely  relief  to  their  misfor- 
tunes in  other  countries.  Some  directed  their  course  to  Onohu- 
alco,  or  Yucatan,  some  to  Guatemala,  while  some  families  stopped 
in  the  kingdom  of  Tula  and  scattered  themselves  in  the  great  val- 
ley where  Mexico  was  afterwards  founded ;  some  in  Cholula,  Tla- 
ximoloyan,  and  other  places,  and  among  these  were  the  two  sons 
of  Topiltzin,  whose  descendants,  in  course  of  time,  intermarried 
with  the  royal  families  of  Mexico,  Tezcuco  and  Colhuacan.* 

After  the  destruction  of  the  Toltecas,  for  the  space  of  one  cen- 
tury, the  land  of  Anahuac  remained  solitary  and  almost  entirely 
depopulated,  until  the  arrival  of  the  Chechemecas.f 

for  it  had  been  placed  upon  that  hill  by  the  ancient  Toltecas.  It  being  replaced 
by  another,  the  latter  was  struck  by  lightning,  and  the  former  then  restored  and 
continued  to  be  preserved  and  worshipped  until  it  was  thrown  down  and  broken 
by  the  order  of  the  first  bishop  of  Mexico. 

*  The  Toltecan  Monarchy  terminated  probably  in  the  year  1052  of  the  vul- 
gar era.  Mexico,  city,  was  founded  '  in  the  year  1325.'  The  destruction  of  the 
Toltecan  monarchy  may  be  but  one  instance  among  many  where  the  nations  of 
America  have  perished  by  pestilence  and  famine,  and  probably  wars  have  been 
the  destruction  of  many  more  than  have  perished  by  pestilence  and  famine.  "In 
large  states  the  calamities  in  one  part  may  be  relieved  by  the  prosperity  in 
another,  but  in  small  states  there  are  no  such  advantages,  and  the  inhabitants 
perish  or  migrate." 

f  Torquemada  does  not  allow  more  than  eleven  years  of  interval  between  the 
destruction  of  the  Toltecas  and  the  arrival  of  the  Chechemecas.  Chechemecas 
is  probably  the  same  as  Chetimecas,  a  tribe  of  Indians  who  dwelt  on  a  lake  near 
the  Lafourche,  in  Louisiana,  in  the  year  1703 ;  the  latter  probably  being  de- 
scended from  the  former. 


148  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XV. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Mexican  Chronology — Abbe  Don  Lorenzo  Herva's  Letter  to  the  Abbe   Don 
Francesco  Saverio  Clavigero,  on  the  Mexican  Calendar. 

THE  Mexicans,  the  Acolhuans,  and  all  the  other  nations  of  Ana- 
huac,  distinguished  four  ages  of  time  by  as  many  suns.  The  first, 
named  Atonatiuh,  that  is  the  sun,  or  the  age  of  water,  commenced 
with  the  creation  of  the  world,  and  continued  until  the  time  at 
which  almost  all  mankind  perished  in  a  general  inundation  along 
with  the  first  sun.  The  second,  Tlaltonatiuh,  the  age  of  earth,  lasted 
from  the  time  of  the  general  inundation  until  the  ruin  of  the 
giants,  and  the  great  earthquakes,  which  concluded  in  a  like  man- 
ner the  second  sun.  The  third,  Ehecatonatiuh,  the  age  of  air,  lasted 
from  the  destruction  of  the  giants  until  the  great  whirlwinds,  in 
which  all  mankind  perished  along  with  the  third  sun.  The  fourth, 
Tletonatiuh,  the  age  of  fire,  began  at  the  last  restoration  of  the  hu- 
man race,  and  was  to  continue  until  the  fourth  sun  and  the  earth 
were  destroyed  by  fire.  This  age,  it  was  supposed,  would  end  at 
the  conclusion  of  one  of  their  centuries,  and  thus  we  may  account 
for  these  noisy  festivals  in  honor  of  the  god  of  fire,  which  were 
celebrated  at  the  beginning  of  every  century,  as  a  thanksgiving  for 
his  restraining  his  voracity,  and  deferring  the  termination  of  the 
world. 

The  Mexicans  and  other  polished  nations  of  Anahuac  used  the 
same  methods  to  compute  centuries,  years  and  months,  as  the  an- 
cient Toltecas.  Their  century  consisted  of  fifty-two  years,  which 
were  subdivided  into  four  periods  of  thirteen  years  each,  and  two 
centuries  formed  an  age  of  one  hundred  and  four  years,  though 
some  authors  have  given  the  name  of  century  to  their  age,  and 
that  of  half-century  to  their  century,  but  it  is  of  little  consequence, 
as  their  manner  of  computing  years  and  distributing  time  is  not  in 
the  least  altered  by  it.  Their  years  had  four  names,  which  were 
Tochtli,  rabbit;  Acatl,  cane ;  Tecpatl,  flint;  and  Calli,  house;  and  of 
these  with  different  numbers  their  century  was  composed.  The 
first  year  of  the  century  was  1,  Tochtli;  the  second  2,  Acatl;  the 
third  3,  Tecpatl;  the  fourth  4,  Calli;  the  fifth  5,  Tochtli;  and 
so  on  to  the  thirteenth  year,  which  was  13,  Tochtli  and  termi- 
nated the  first  period.  They  began  the  second  period  with  1, 
Acatl,  which  was  succeeded  by  2,  Tecpatl;  3,  Calli;  4,  Tochtli, 
until  it  was  completed  by  13,  Acatl.  In  like  manner  the  third 


CHAP.  XV.]  OF    AMERICA.  149 

period  began  with  1,  Tecpatl  and  finished  with  13,  Tecpatl ;  and 
the  fourth  commenced  with  1,  Calli  and  terminated  together  with 
the  century  in  13,  Calli ;  so  that,  there  being  four  names  and  thir- 
teen numbers,  no  one  year  could  be  confounded  with  another. 

The  Mexican  year  consisted  like  ours  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five  days ;  for  although  it  was  composed  of  eighteen  months 
each  of  twenty  days,  which  made  only  three  hundred  and  sixty, 
they  added  after  the  last  month  five  days.  The  year  1,  Tochtli, 
the  first  of  their  century,  began  on  the  26th  of  February,  but  every 
four  years  the  Mexican  century  anticipated  a  day  on  account  of 
the  odd  day  of  our  leap  year,  from  whence  in  the  last  year  of  the 
Mexican  century  the  year  began  on  the  14th  of  February,  on  ac- 
count of  the  thirteen  days  which  intervened  in  the  course  of  fifty- 
two  years.  But  at  the  expiration  of  the  century  the  commence- 
ment of  the  year  returned  to  the  26th  of  February. 

The  names  which  they  gave  their  months  were  taken  both  from 
the  employments  and  festivals  which  occurred  in  them,  and  also 
from  the  accidents  of  the  seasons  which  attended  them.  Their 
arrangement  was  not  only  different  among  different  nations,  but 
even  among  the  Mexicans. 

Their  months  consisted  of  twenty  days,  their  names  are : 

1.  Cipactli,  11.  Ozomatli, 

2.  Ehecatl,  12.   Malinalli, 

3.  Calli,  13.  Acatl, 

4.  Cuetzpalin,  14.  Ocelotl, 

5.  Coatl,  15.  Quauhtli, 

6.  Miquiztli,  16.  Cozcaquahtli, 

7.  Mazatl,  17.  Olin  tonatiuh, 

8.  Tochtli,  18.  Tecpatl, 

9.  Atl,  19.  Quiahuitl, 
10.  Itzcuintli,  20.  Xochitl. 

In  their  mode  of  reckoning  no  regard  was  paid  to  the  division 
of  months,  nor  that  of  years,  but  to  periods  of  thirteen  days 
(similar  to  those  of  thirteen  years  in  a  century),  which  ran  on 
without  interruption  from  the  end  of  a  month  or  year.  The  first 
day  of  the  century  was  1,  Cipactli;  the  second  2,  Ehecatl,  or 
wind;  the  third  3,  Calli,  a  house ;  and  so  on  to  thirteen,  which 
was  13,  Acatl,  or  reed.  The  fourteenth  day  began  another 
period,  reckoning  1st,  Ocelotl  (tiger) ;  2d,  Quauhtli  (eagle),  etc., 
until  the  completion  of  the  month  ;  7,  Xochitl  (flower~) ;  and  in 
the  next  month  they  continued  to  count  8,  Cipactli;  9,  Ehe- 
catl, etc.  Twenty  of  these  periods  made  in  thirteen  months  a 
cycle  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  days,  and  during  the  whole  of 


150  THE    INDIAN    AMD    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XV. 

this  time  the  same  sign  or  character  was  not  repeated  with  the 
same  number.  On  the  first  day  of  the  fourteenth  month  another 
cycle  commenced  in  the  same  order  of  the  characters,  and  of  the 
same  number  of  periods  as  the  first.  If  the  year  had  not,  besides 
the  eighteen  months,  had  the  five  days  called  Nemontemi,  or  if  the 
periods  had  not  been  continued  in  these  days,  the  first  day  of  the 
second  year  of  the  century  would  have  been  the  same  with  that 
of  the  preceding  1st  Cipactli ;  and  in  like  manner  the  last  day  of 
every  year  would  always  have  been  Xochitl ;  but  as  the  period  of 
thirteen  days  was  continued  through  the  days  called  Nemontemi, 
on  that  account  the  signs  or  characters  changed  place,  and  the 
sign  Miquiztli,  which  occupied  in  all  the  months  of  the  first  year 
the  sixth  place,  occupies  the  first  in  the  second  year;  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  sign  Cipactli,  which  in  the  first  year  had  occupied 
the  first  place,  has  the  sixteenth  in  the  second  year.  To  know 
what  ought  to  be  the  sign  of  the  first  day  of  any  year,  there  is 
the  following  general  rule :  Every  year  Tochtli  begins  with  Cip- 
actli ;  every  year  Acatl  with  Miquiztli ;  Tecpactl  with  Ozomatli ; 
and  Calli  with  Cozcaquahtli,  adding  always  the  number  of  the 
year  to  the  sign  of  the  day  ;  as,  for  example,  the  year  1st  Tochtli 
has  for  the  first  day  1st  Cipactli ;  so  the  second,  Acatl,  has  2d 
Miquiztli ;  the  third,  Tecpactl,  has  three,  Ozomatli ;  and,  fourth, 
Calli  has  four,  Cozaquahtli,  etc.* 

From  what  we  have  already  said  it  will  appear  that  the  num- 
ber thirteen  was  held  in  high  estimation  by  the  Mexicans.  The 
four  periods  of  which  the  century  consisted  were  each  of  thirteen 
years ;  the  thirteen  months  formed  their  cycle  of  two  hundred 
and  sixty  days,  and  thirteen  days  their  smaller  periods.  The 
origin  of  their  esteem  for  this  number  was,  according  to  what 
Siguenza  has  said,  that  thirteen  was  the  number  of  their  greater 
gods.  The  number  four  seems  to  have  been  no  less  esteemed 
among  them.  As  they  reckoned  four  periods  of  thirteen  years 
each  to  their  century,  they  also  reckoned  thirteen  periods  of  four 
years,  at  the  expiration  of  each  of  which  they  made  extraordinary 
festivals. 

In  respect  to  civil  government,  they  divided  the  month  into 
four  periods  of  five  days,  and  on  a  certain  fixed  day  of  each  period 
their  fair  or  great  market  was  held ;  but  being  governed,  even  in 

*  "  Boturini  says  the  year  of  the  Babbit  ( Tochtli)  began  uniformly  with  the 
day  of  the  Kabbit,  the  year  of  the  Cane  with  the  day  of  the  Cane,  etc.,  and 
never  with  the  days  we  have  mentioned ;  but  we  ought  to  give  more  faith  to 
Siguenza,  who  certainly  was  better  informed  in  Mexican  antiquity  than  Botur- 
ini. The  system  of  this  gentleman  is  fantastical  and  full  of  contradictions." 


CHAP.  XV.]  OF    AMERICA.  151 

political  matters,  by  principles  of  religion  in  the  capital,  this  fair 
was  kept  on  the  days  of  the  Rabbit,  the  Cane,  the  Flint,  and  the 
House,  which  were  their  favorite  signs. 

The  Mexican  year  consisted  of  seventy-three  periods  of  thirteen 
days,  and  the  century  of  seventy-three  periods  of  thirteen  months, 
or  cycles  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  days. 

It  is  certainly  not  to  be  doubted  that  the  Mexican  or  Toltecan 
system  of  the  distribution  of  time  was  extremely  well  digested, 
though  at  first  view  it  appears  rather  intricate  and  perplexed  ; 
hence  we  may  infer  with  confidence  that  it  was  not  the  work  of  a 
rude  or  unpolished  people.  That,  however,  which  is  most  sur- 
prising is  their  method  of  computing  time,  and  what  will  cer- 
tainly appear  improbable  to  readers  who  are  but  little  informed 
with  respect  to  Mexican  antiquity,  is,  that  having  discovered  the 
excess  of  a  few  hours  in  the  solar  above  the  civil  year,  they  made 
use  of  intercalary  days  to  bring  them  to  an  equality,  but  with  this 
difference  in  regard  to  the  method  established  by  Julius  Caesar 
in  the  Roman  calendar,  that  they  did  not  interpose  a  day  every 
four  years,  but  thirteen  days  every  fifty -two  years,  which  produces 
the  same  regulation  of  time.  At  the  expiration  of  the  century 
they  broke  all  their  kitchen  utensils,  fearing  that  then,  also  the 
fourth  age,  the  sun  and  all  the  world  were  to  be  ended,  and  the 
last  night  they  performed  the  famous  ceremony  of  the  new  fire. 
As  soon  as  they  were  assured  by  the  new  fire  that  a  new  century 
was  granted  them  by  the  gods,  they  employed  the  thirteen  follow- 
ing days  in  supplying  their  kitchen  utensils,  in  furnishing  new 
garments,  in  repairing  their  temples  and  houses,  and  in  making 
every  preparation  for  the  grand  festival  of  the  new  century.  These 
thirteen  days  were  the  intercalary  days  represented  in  their  paint- 
ings by  blue  points.  They  were  not  included  in  the  century  just 
expired,  nor  in  that  which  was  just  commencing,  nor  did  they 
continue  in  them  their  period  of  days,  which  they  always  reck- 
oned from  the  first  day  to  the  last  day  of  this  century.  When 
the  intercalary  days  were  elapsed,  they  began  the  new  century 
with  the  year  1,  Tochtli,  and  the  day  1,  Cipactli,  upon  the  26th 
day  of  our  February,  as  they  did  at  the  beginning  of  the  preced- 
ing century.  We  would  not  venture  to  relate  these  particulars  if 
we  were  not  supported  by  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Siguenza,  who,  in 
addition  to  his  great  learning,  his  critical  skill  and  sincerity,  was 
the  person  who  most  diligently  exerted  himself  to  illustrate  these 
points,  and  consulted  both  the  best  instructed  Mexicans  and  Tez- 
cucans,  and  studied  their  histories  and  paintings. 

Two  things  must  appear  truly  strange  in  the  Mexican  system. 


152  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XV. 

The  one  is,  that  they  do  not  regulate  their  months  by  the  changes 
of  the  moon ;  the  other,  that  they  use  no  particular  character  to 
distinguish  one  century  from  another.  But  with  respect  to  the 
first,  we  do  not  mean  that  their  astronomical  months  did  not  accord 
with  the  lunar  periods,  because  we  know  that  their  year  was  justly 
regulated  by  the  sun,  and  because  they  used  the  same  name,  which 
was  Metztli,  indifferently  for  month  or  moon.  The  month  now 
mentioned  by  us  is  their  religious  month,  according  to  which  they 
observed  the  celebration  of  festivals  and  practiced  divination ;  not 
their  astronomical  months,  of  which  we  know  nothing,  unless  that 
it  was  divided  into  two  periods — that  is,  into  the  period  of  watch- 
ing, and  into  that  of  sleep,  of  the  moon.  We  are,  however,  per- 
suaded that  they  must  have  made  use  of  some  character  to  distin- 
guish one  century  from  another,  as  this  distinction  was  so  very 
easy  and  necessary ;  but  we  have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  this 
upon  the  authority  of  any  historian. 

The  distribution  of  the  signs  or  characters,  both  of  days  and 
years,  served  the  Mexicans  as  superstitious  prognostics,  according 
to  which  they  predicted  the  fortunes  of  infants  from  the  sign 
under  which  they  were  born,  and  the  happiness  or  misfortune  of 
marriages,  the  success  of  wars,  and  of  every  other  thing  from  the 
day  on  which  they  were  undertaken  or  put  in  execution.  To 
represent  the  month  they  painted  a  circle  divided  into  twenty 
figures,  signifying  twenty  days.  To  represent  the  year  they  painted 
another  which  they  divided  into  eighteen  figures  of  the  eighteen 
months,  and  frequently  painted  within  the  circle  the  image  of  the 
moon.  The  century  was  represented  by  a  circle  divided  into  fifty- 
two  figures,  or,  rather  by  four  figures  which  were  thirteen  times 
designed.  They  used  to  paint  a  serpent  twisted  about  the  circle, 
which  pointed  out,  by  four  twists  of  his  body,  the  four  principal 
winds,  and  the  beginning  of  the  four  periods  of  thirteen  years. 

The  method  adopted  by  the  Mexicans  to  compute  months,  years, 
and  centuries  was  common  to  all  the  polished  nations  of  Anahuac, 
without  any  variation  except  in  the  names  and  figures.  The  Chia- 
panese,  who  among  the  tributaries  to  the  crown  of  Mexico  were 
the  most  distant  from  the  capital,  instead  of  the  names  and  the 
figures  of  the  Rabbit,  the  Cane,  Flint  and  House,  made  use  of 
the  names  of  Votan,  Lambat,  Been  and  Chinau ;  and  instead  of 
the  names  of  the  Mexican  days,  they  adopted  the  names  of  twenty 
illustrious  men  among  their  ancestors,  among  which  the  four 
names  above  mentioned  occupied  the  same  places  that  the  names 
Rabbit,  Cane,  Flint  and  House  held  among  the  Mexican  days. 

The  following  is  an  abridgment  of  a  letter  upon  the  Mexican 


CHAP.  XV.]  OF    AMERICA.  153 

Calendar,  addressed  by  the  Abbe"  Don  Lorenzo  Hervas  to  Clavi- 
gero : 

From  the  work  of  your  Reverence,  I  learn  with  infinite  pain 
how  much  is  to  be  regretted  the  loss  of  those  documents  which 
assisted  the  celebrated  De  Siguenza  to  form  his  Ciclography ;  and 
the  Cav.  Boturini  to  publish  his  "  Idea  of  the  General  History  of 
New  Spain." 

The  year  and  century  have  from  time  immemorial  been  regu- 
lated by  the  Mexicans  with  a  degree  of  intelligence  which  does  not 
at  all  correspond  with  their  arts  and  sciences.  In  them  they  were 
certainly  extremely  inferior  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  but  the 
discernment  which  appears  in  their  calendar  equals  those  of  the 
most  cultivated  nations.  Hence  we  ought  to  imagine  that  this 
calendar  has  not  been  the  discovery  of  the  Mexicans,  but  a  com- 
munication from  some  more  enlightened  people.  And  as  the  last 
are  not  to  be  found  in  America,  we  must  seek  for  them  elsewhere, 
in  Asia  or  in  Egypt.  This  supposition  is  confirmed  by  your  affir- 
mation that  the  Mexicans  had  their  calendar  from  the  Toltecas 
{originating  from  Asia),  whose  year,  according  to  Boturini,  was 
exactly  adjusted  by  the  course  of  the  sun  more  than  a  hundred 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  also  from  observing  that  other 
nations,  namely,  the  Chiapanese,  made  use  of  the  same  calendar 
with  the  Mexicans,  without  any  difference  but  that  of  their  sym- 
bols. 

The  Mexican  year  began  upon  the  26th  of  February,  a  day  cele- 
brated in  the  era  of  Nabonassar,  which  was  fixed  by  the  Egyptians 
seven  hundred  and  forty-seven  years  before  the  Christian  era,  for 
the  beginning  of  their  month  Toth,  corresponded  with  the  meridian 
of  the  same  day.  If  these  priests  fixed  also  upon  this  day  as  an 
epoch,  because  it  was  celebrated  in  Egypt,*  we  have  then  the 
Mexican  calendar  agreeing  with  the  Egyptian.  But  independent 
of  this,  it  is  certain  that  the  Mexican  calendar  conformed  greatly 
with  the  Egyptian. 

On  this  subject  Herodotus  saysf  that  the  year  was  first  regulated 
by  the  Egyptians,  who  gave  to  it  twelve  months  of  thirty  days, 
and  added  five  days  to  every  year,  that  the  circle  of  the  year 
might  revolve  regularly ;  that  the  principal  gods  of  Egypt  were 
twelve  in  number ;  and  that  each  month  was  under  the  tutelage 

*  "On  the  26th  day  of  February  of  the  above-mentioned  year,  the  year,  ac- 
cording to  the  meridian  of  Alexandria,  which  was  built  three  centuries  after, 
properly  began." — Q.  Curt.,  lib.  iv.,  c.  21.  (See  La  Lande  Astronomie,  n. 
1597. ) 

t  Herod.,  lib.  ii.,  cap.  1  and  6. 


154  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XV. 

and  protection  of  one  of  these  gods.  The  Mexicans  also  added 
to  every  year  five  days  which  they  called  Nemontemi,  or  useless, 
because  during  these  they  did  nothing.  Plutarch  says,*  that  in 
such  days  the  Egyptians  celebrated  the  festival  of  the  birth  of 
their  gods. 

It  is  certainly  true  that  the  Mexicans  divided  their  year  into 
eighteen  months,  not  into  twelve,  like  the  Egyptians  ;  but,  as  they 
called  the  month  miztli,  or  moon,  it  seems  undeniable  that  their 
ancient  month  had  been  lunar,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Egyptian 
and  Chinese,  the  Mexican  month  verifying  that  which  the  Scrip- 
tures tell,  that  the  month  is  obliged  for  its  name  to  the  raoow.f  The 
Mexicans,  it  is  probable,  received  the  lunar  month  from  their 
ancestors,  but  for  certain  purposes  afterwards  instituted  another. 
You  have  affirmed  in  your  history,  upon  the  faith  of  Boturini, 
that  the  Miztecas  formed  their  year  into  thirteen  months,  which 
number  was  sacred  in  the  calendar  of  the  Mexicans,  on  account 
of  their  thirteen  principal  gods,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Egyp- 
tians consecrated  the  number  twelve  on  account  of  their  twelve 
great  gods. 

The  symbols  and  periods  of  years,  months,  and  days  in  the 
Mexican  calendar  is  truly  admirable.  With  respect  to  the  periods, 
it  appears  to  me  that  the  period  of  five  days  might  not  improperly 
be  termed  their  civil  week,  and  that  of  thirteen  their  religious 
week.  In  the  same  manner  the  period  of  twenty  days  might 
be  called  their  civil  month,  that  of  twenty-six  their  religious 
month,  and  that  of  thirty  their  lunar  and  astronomical  month. 
In  their  century  it  is  probable  that  the  period  of  four  years  was 
civil  and  that  of  thirteen  religious.  From  the  multiplication  of 
these  two  periods  they  had  their  century,  and  from  the  duplication 
of  their  century  their  age  of  one  hundred  and  four  years.  In  all 
those  periods  an  art  is  discovered  not  less  admirable  than  that  of 
our  indictions,  cycles,  etc.  The  period  of  civil  weeks  was  contained 
exactly  in  their  civil  and  astronomical  months ;  the  latter  had 
six,  the  former  four,  and  the  year  contained  seventy-three  com- 
plete weeks,  in  which  particular  our  method  is  excelled  by  the 
Mexican  ;  for  our  weeks  are  not  contained  exactly  in  the  month 
nor  in  the  year.  The  period  of  religious  weeks  was  contained 
twice  in  their  religious  month  and  twenty-eight  times  in  the  year ; 
but  in  the  latter  there  remained  a  day  over,  as  there  is  in  our 

*  Plutarch,  de  Isike  Osiride. 

|  The  Abbe  must  have  thought  all  his  readers  were,  or  ought  to  be,  as  well 
versed  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  himself,  since  he  has  no  note  of  reference  in 
regard  to  this  statement. 


CHAP.  XV.]  OF   AMERICA.  155 

weeks.  From  the  period  of  thirteen  days  multiplied  by  the  twenty 
characters  of  the  month,  the  cycle  of  three  hundred  and  sixty  days 
was  produced ;  but,  as  there  remained  a  day  over  the  twenty -eight 
religious  weeks  of  the  solar  year,  there  arose  another  cycle  of  two 
hundred  and  sixty  days  in  such  a  manner  that  the  Mexicans 
could  from  the  first  day  of  every  year  distinguish  what  year  it 
was.  The  period  of  civil  months  multiplied  by  the  number  of 
days  (that  is,  eighteen  by  twenty)  and  the  period  of  the  lunar 
months  multiplied  by  the  number  of  days  (that  is,  twelve  by 
thirty),  gave  the  same  product,  or  the  number  three  hundred  and 
sixty — a  number  certainly  not  less  memorable,  and  in  use  among 
the  Mexicans,  then  among  the  most  ancient  nations,  and  a  num- 
ber which,  from  time  immemorial,  has  ruled  in  geometry  and 
astronomy,  and  is  of  the  utmost  particularity,  on  account  of  its  re- 
lation to  the  circle,  which  is  divided  into  three  hundred  and  sixty 
parts  or  degrees.  In  no  nation  of  the  world  do  we  meet  with  any- 
thing similar  to  this  clear  and  distinct  method  of  calendar.  From 
the  small  period  of  four  years  multiplied  by  the  above-mentioned 
cycle  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  years,  arose  another  admirable 
cycle  of  ten  hundred  and  forty  years.  The  Mexicans  combined 
the  small  period  of  four  years  with  the  period  above-named 
of  thirteen  years ;  thence  resulted  their  noted  cycle  or  century  of 
fifty-two  years ;  and  thus,  with  the  four  figures,  indicating  the 
period  of  four  years,  they  had,  as  we  have  from  the  Dominical 
Letters,  a  period  which,  to  say  the  truth,  excelled  ours,  as  it  is 
of  twenty-eight  years  and  the  Mexican  of  fifty-two ;  this  was  per- 
petual, and  ours  in  Gregorian  years  is  not  so.  So  much  variety 
and  simplicity  of  periods,  of  weeks,  months,  years,  and  cycles, 
cannot  be  unadmired,  and  the  more  so  as  there  is  immediately 
discovered  that  particular  relation  which  these  periods  have  to 
many  different  ends,  which  Boturini  points  out  by  saying :  "  The 
Mexican  calendar  was  of  four  species — that  is,  natural,  for  agricul- 
ture ;  chronological,  for  history ;  ritual,  for  festivals ;  astronomical,  for 
the  course  of  the  stars,  and  the  year  was  lunisolar."  This  year, 
if  we  do  not  put  it  at  the  end  of  three  Mexican  ages,  after  several 
calculations  I  am  not  able  to  find  it. 

Eclipses  are  noted  in  Mexican  paintings.  Although  all  the  cir- 
cumstances of  eclipses  are  not  described,  yet  the  defects  of  them 
are  remedied  by  many  eclipses  which  are  marked  there. 

Respecting  the  symbols  of  the  Mexican  months  and  year,  they 
discover  ideas  entirely  conformable  with  those  of  the  ancient 
Egyptians.  The  latter  distinguished,  as  appears  from  their  monu- 
ments, each  month  or  part  of  the  zodiac,  where  the  sun  stood, 


156  THE   INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XV. 

with  characteristic  figures  of  that  which  happened  in  every  sea- 
son of  the  year.  Therefore  we  see  the  signs  of  Aries,  Taurus,  and 
the  two  young  Goats  (which  now  are  Gemini)  used  to  mark  the 
months  of  the  birth  of  these  animals ;  the  signs  of  Cancer,  Leo,  and 
Virgo,  with  the  ear  of  corn,  for  those  months  in  which  the  sun 
goes  backward  like  a  crab,  in  which  there  is  great  heat,  and  in 
which  the  harvests  are  reaped.  The  sign  of  the  Scorpion  (which, 
in  the  Egyptian  sphere,  occupied  the  space  which  at  present  is 
occupied  by  the  sign  Libra),  and  that  of  Sagittarius,  in  the  months 
of  virulent  or  contagious  distempers,  and  the  chase;  and,  lastly, 
the  signs  of  Capricorn,  Aquarius,  and  Pisces,  in  those  months  in 
which  the  sun  begins  to  ascend  towards  others,  in  which  it  rains 
much,  and  in  which  there  is  abundant  fishing.  These  ideas,  at 
least,  are  similar  to  those  which  the  Mexicans  associated  with  their 
clime.  They  called  their  first  month,  which  began  on  the  26th  of 
February,  Acahualco — that  is,  the  cessation  of  water — and  they 
symbolized  this  month  by  a  house  with  the  figure  of  water  above 
it ;  they  gave  also  to  the  same  month  the  name  Quahuitlehua — 
that  is,  the  moving  or  budding  of  trees.  The  first  Acahualco  did 
not  correspond  with  their  climate,  where  the  rains  came  in  Octo- 
ber, but  it  agrees  with  the  fields  of  Senna  and  the  northern  climes 
of  America  from  whence  their  ancestors  came.*  The  symbol  of 
the  second  Mexican  month  was  a  pavilion.  The  symbol  of  the 
third  month  was  a  bird  that  appeared  at  that  time.  The  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  months  had  for  their  symbol  the  plant  pactli,  which 
springs  up  and  matures  in  these  months.  The  symbol  of  the 
fourteenth  month  was  expressed  by  a  cord  and  a  hand  which 
pulled  it,  expressive  of  the  binding  power  of  the  cold  in  that 
month,  which  is  January ;  and  to  this  same  circumstance  the 
name  Tititl,  which  they  gave  it,  alludes.  The  constellation  Kefil, 
of  which  Job  speaks  to  signify  winter,  signifies  in  the  Arabic  root 
(which  is  Kefal)  to  be  cold  and  asleep,  and  in  the  text  of  Job  it  is 
read,  "  Couldst  thou  break  the  cords  or  ties  of  Kefil  ?" 

Lastly,  the  symbol  which  you  have  put  for  the  Mexican  century 
convinces  me  that  it  is  the  same  which  the  ancient  Egyptians  and 
Chaldeans  had.  In  the  Mexican  symbol,  we  see  the  sun  as  it  were 
eclipsed  by  the  moon,  and  surrounded  with  a  serpent,  which 
makes  four  twists  and  embraces  the  four  periods  of  thirteen  years. 
This  very  idea  of  the  serpent  with  the  sun  has,  from  time  im- 
memorial in  the  world,  signified  the  periodical  and  annual  course 

*  If  it  conforms  with  the  climate  of  Karakorum,  it  would  give  an  additional 
reason  for  believing  that  the  Toltecs  came  from  that  region  where  is  the  river 
and  desert  of  Tolla  or  Tula. 


CHAP.  XV.]  OF   AMERICA.  157 

of  the  sun.  We  know  that  in  agronomy,  the  points  where  the 
eclipses  happen  have,  from  time  immemorial,  been  called  the 
head  and  tail  of  a  dragon.  The  Chinese,  from  false  ideas,  though 
conformable  to  this  immemorial  allusion,  believe  that  at  eclipses  a 
dragon  is  in  the  act  of  devouring  the  sun.  The  Egyptians  more 
particularly  agree  with  the  Mexicans,  for  to  symbolize  the  sun 
they  employed  a  circle,  with  one  or  two  serpents ;  but  still  more 
the  ancient  Persians,  among  whom  their  Mitras  (which  was  cer- 
tainly the  sun)  was  symbolized  by  a  sun  and  a  serpent ;  and  from 
Montfaucon  we  are  given  in  his  "Antiquities  "  a  monument  of  a  ser- 
pent, which,  surrounding  the  signs  of  the  zodiac,  cuts  them,  by 
rolling  itself  in  various  modes  about  them.  In  addition  to  these 
incontestable  examples,  the  following  reflection  is  most  convincing: 
There  is  not  a  doubt  that  the  symbol  of  the  serpent  is  a  thing 
totally  arbitrary  to  signify  the  sun,  to  which  it  has  no  physical  re- 
lation ;  wherefore  then,  I  ask,  have  so  many  nations  dispersed  over 
the  globe,  and  of  which  some  have  had  no  reciprocal  intercourse, 
unless  in  the  first  ages  of  the  deluge,  agreed  in  using  one  same  sym- 
bol so  arbitrary,  and  chose  to  express  by  it  the  same  object? 
When  we  find  the  word  sacco  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  Teutonic, 
Latin,  languages,  etc.,  it  obliges  us  to  believe  that  it  belongs  to  the 
primitive  language  of  men  after  the  deluge,  and  when  we  see  one 
same  arbitrary  symbol,  signifying  the  sun  in  his  course,  used  by 
the  Mexicans,  the  Chinese,  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  Persians, 
does  it  not  prompt  us  to  believe  that  the  real  origin  of  it  was  in 
the  time  of  Noah  or  the  first  men  after  the  deluge  ?  This  fair  con- 
clusion is  strongly  confirmed  by  the  Chiapanese  Calendar  (which 
is  totally  Mexican).  Many  similar  reflections  are  suggested  by  the 
observations  and  remarks  which  occur  in  your  history,  etc. 
CESENA,  July  31,  1780. 

So  far  the  letter  of  Sig.  Ab.  Hervas. 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  truth  respecting  the  use  of  the 
solar  year  among  these  first  men,  in  which  dispute  I  do  not  mean 
to  engage,  I  cannot  be  persuaded  that  the  Mexicans,  or  the  Toltecas, 
have  been  indebted  to  any  nation  of  the  old  continent  for  their 
calendar  and  their  method  of  computing  time.  From  whom  did 
the  Toltecas  learn  their  age  of  one  hundred  and  four  years ;  their 
century  of  fifty -two  years ;  their  year  of  eighteen  months ;  their 
months  of  twenty  days  ;  their  periods  of  thirteen  years  and  thirteen 
days ;  their  cycle  of  two  hundred  and  sixty  days ;  and  in  particu- 
lar their  thirteen  intercalary  days  at  the  end  of  the  century,  to 
adjust  the  year  with  the  course  of  the  sun  ?  The  Egyptians  were 


158  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

the  greatest  astronomers  of  those  remote  times,  but  they  adopted 
no  intercalary  space  to  adjust  the  year  to  the  annual  retardation 
of  the  solar  course.  If  the  Toltecas  of  themselves  discovered  that 
retardation,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  they  discovered  other 
things  which  did  not  require  such  minute  and  prolix  astronomical 
observations.  Boturini,  of  whose  testimony  Abbe  Hervas  avails 
himself,  says  expressly,  upon  the  faith  of  the  annals  of  the  Tol- 
tecas, which  he  saw,  that  the  ancient  astronomers  of  that  nation 
having  observed  in  their  native  country,  Huehuetlapallen  (a  north- 
ern country  of  America),  the  excess  of  about  six  hours  of  the  solar 
over  the  civil  year  which  was  observed  among  them,  corrected  it 
by  the  use  of  intercalary  days,  more  than  one  hundred  years  be- 
fore the  Christian  era. — Clavigero. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Mexican  Festivals — The  Worship  of  Fire — Fathers  Garces  and  Font's  Visit  to 
the  Gila  and  the  Moqui — The  Bio  Grande  Basin — The  Pueblos  of  the  Kio 
Grande — The  Kio  Verde — The  Bio  Gila — Casa  Blanca  or  Casa  Montezuma 
and  Casa  Grande  of  the  Gila — The  Casas  Grandes  of  the  Kio  Casas  Grandes 
— New  Mexico  When  First  Discovered — The  Journey  of  Espejo  through 
New  Mexico  in  1582— Its  Cities  and  People  in  1582. 

THERE  was  no  month  in  which  the  Mexicans  did  not  celebrate 
some  festival  or  other,  which  was  either  fixed  and  established  to 
be  held  on  a  certain  day  of  the  month,  or  movable,  from  being 
annexed  to  some  signs  which  did  not  correspond  with  the  same 
days  in  every  year.  The  principal  movable  festivals,  according  to 
Boturini,  were  sixteen  in  number,  among  which  the  fourth  was 
that  of  the  god  of  wine,  and  the  thirteenth  that  of  the  god  of  fire. 

In  the  third  month,  which  began  the  7th  of  April,  those  who 
traded  in  flowers  celebrated  the  festival  of  the  goddess  Coatlicue, 
and  presented  her  garlands  of  flowers.  But  before  this  offering 
was  made,  no  person  was  allowed  to  smell  these  flowers.  The 
ministers  of  the  temples  watched  every  night  of  this  month,  and 
on  that  account  made  great  fires. 

In  the  eighth  month,  which  began  the  16th  of  July,  they  made 
a  solemn  festival  to  the  goddess  Centeotl.  The  festival  continued 
eight  days.  At  sunset,  when  the  feasting  of  the  populace  was 
ended,  the  priests  had  their  dances,  which  continued  four  hours, 
and  on  that  account  there  was  a  splendid  illumination  in  the  temple. 

The  tenth  month,  the  beginning  of  which  was  on  the  25th  of 
August,  they  kept  the  festival  of  Xiuhteuctli,  god  of  fire. 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  159 

In  the  fourteenth  month,  which  commenced  on  the  13th  of  No- 
vember, was  the  festival  of  Mixcoatl,  goddess  of  the  chase.  It  was 
preceded  by  four  days  of  rigid  and  general  fasting,  accompanied 
with  the  effusion  of  blood,  during  which  time  they  made  arrows 
and  darts  for  the  supply  of  their  arsenals,  and  also  small  arrows 
which  they  placed,  together  with  pieces  of  pine  and  some  meats, 
upon  the  tombs  of  their  relations,  and  after  one  day  burned  them. 

In  the  eighteenth  and  last  month,  which  began  the  1st  of  Feb- 
ruary, the  second  festival  of  the  god  of  fire  was  held,  and  the  tenth 
day  of  this  month  the  whole  of  the  Mexican  youth  went  out  to  the 
chase,  not  only  of  wild  beasts  in  the  woods,  but  also  to  catch  the 
birds  of  the  lake.  On  the  sixteenth  the  fire  of  the  temple  and  private 
houses  was  extinguished,  and  they  kindled  it  anew  before  the  idol  of 
that  god. 

The  festival  which  was  celebrated  every  fifty-two  years  was  by 
far  the  most  splendid,  and  the  most  solemn,  not  only  among  the 
Mexicans,  but  likewise  among  all  the  nations  of  that  empire,  or 
which  were  neighboring  to  it.  On  the  last  night  of  this  century 
they  extinguished  the  fires  of  all  the  temples  and  houses,  and 
broke  their  vessels,  earthen  pots,  and  all  other  kitchen  utensils,* 
preparing  themselves  in  this  manner  for  the  end  of  the  world, 
which  at  the  termination  of  each  century  they  expected  with 
terror.  The  priests,  clothed  in  various  dresses  and  ensigns  of  their 
gods,  and  accompanied  by  a  vast  crowd  of  people,  issued  from  the 
temple  out  of  the  city,  directing  their  way  toward  the  mountain 
Huixachtla,  near  the  city  of  Iztapalapan,  upwards  of  six  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  capital.  They  regulated  their  journey  in  some 
measure  by  observation  of  the  stars,  in  order  that  they  might 
arrive  at  the  mountain  a  little  before  midnight,  on  the  top  of  which 
the  new  fire  was  to  be  kindled.  In  the  meantime  the  people  re- 
mained in  the  utmost  suspense  and  solicitude.  All  those  who  did 
not  go  out  with  the  priests  mounted  upon  terraces  to  observe  from 
thence  the  event  of  the  ceremony.  The  office  of  kindling  the  fire 
on  this  occasion  belonged  exclusively  to  a  priest  of  Copolco,  one  of 
the  districts  of  the  city.  The  instruments  for  this  purpose  were 
two  pieces  of  wood,  and  the  place  in  which  the  fire  was  produced 
from  them  was  the  breast  of  some  brave  prisoner  whom  they  sac- 
rificed. As  soon  as  the  fire  was  kindled,  they  all  at  once  exclaimed 
with  joy ;  and  a  great  fire  was  made  on  the  mountain,  that  it 
might  be  seen  from  afar,  in  which  they  afterwards  burned  the 

*  May  not  this  custom  in  part  account  for  the  broken  pottery  found  scattered 
everywhere  where  there  has  been  an  ancient  settlement  ? 


160  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

victim  whom  they  had  sacrificed.  Immediately  they  took  up  por- 
tions of  the  sacred  fire,  and  strove  with  each  other  who  should 
carry  it  most  speedily  to  their  houses.  The  priests  carried  it  to 
the  great  Temple  of  Mexico,  from  whence  all  the  inhabitants  of  that 
capital  were  supplied  with  it.  During  the  thirteen  days  which 
followed  the  renewal  of  the  fire  (which  were  the  intercalary  days 
interposed  between  the  past  and  the  ensuing  century  to  adjust  the 
year  with  the  course  of  the  sun)  they  employed  themselves  in 
whitening  and  repairing  the  public  and  private  buildings,  and  in 
furnishing  themselves  with  new  dresses  and  domestic  utensils,  in 
order  that  everything  might  be  new,  or  at  least  appear  to  be  so, 
upon  the  commencement  of  the  new  century.* 

The  ancient  worship  of  fire  existed  among  the  American  In- 
dians from  time  immemorial.  It  is  found  in  the  traditions  as  in 
the  history  of  almost  all  nations  which  have  had  temples  and 
altars  in  which  was  a  pyre,  a  hearth,  a  brazier,  in  order  to  enter- 
tain continually  the  fire  used  in  their  sacrifices.  The  Greeks 
adored  fire  under  the  name  of  Haitos,  and  the  Latins  under  the 
name  of  Vesta.f  Father  Charlevoix  represents  the  tribes  of  Loui- 
siana, and  especially  the  ancient  tribe  of  the  Natchez,  as  keeping 
up  a  perpetual  fire  in  all  their  temples.  Among  the  Moquis  of 
New  Mexico  the  sacred  fire  is  constantly  maintained  by  aged 
men.  They  believe  that  great  misfortunes  would  afflict  the  whole 
tribe  should  the  fire  be  extinguished. 

The  superstitious  devotion  to  fire  was  general  among  the  Mexi- 
cans at  the  period  of  the  conquest.  The  Potawatornies  say  that 
Chipiapoos,  or  the  Dead  Man,  is  the  great  manitou  that  presides 
in  the  country  of  souls,  and  there  maintains  the  sacred  fire  for 
the  happiness  of  all  those  of  his  race  who  arrive  there.  Fire  is, 
in  all  the  Indian  tribes  that  I  have  known,  an  emblem  of  happi- 
ness or  of  good  fortune.  It  is  kindled  before  all  their  delibera- 
tions. "  Having  extinguished  the  enemy's  fire "  signifies  with 
them  to  have  gained  the  victory.  They  attribute  to  fire  a  sacred 
character,  which  is  remarkable  everywhere  in  their  usages  and 
customs,  especially  in  their  religious  ceremonies.  They  generally 
maintain  mysterious  ideas  concerning  the  substance  and  phenome- 
na of  fire,  which  they  consider  supernatural.  To  see  a  fire  rising 

*  Clavigero. 

f  Moses  kept  the  flocks  of  Jethro.  He  led  the  flock  to  the  back  side  of  the 
desert  and  came  to  the  mountain  of  Horeb,  the  mountain  of  God.  And  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  him  in  a  flame  of  fire.  This  probably  is  the 
earliest  mention  of  fire  in  connection  with  religion,  and  this  fire  was  on  the 
mountain  of  God. 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  161 

mysteriously  in  their  dreams  or  otherwise  is  the  symbol  of  the 
passage  of  the  soul  into  the  other  world.  Before  consulting  the 
manitous,  or  tutelary  spirits,  or  before  addressing  the  dead,  they 
begin  by  kindling  the  sacred  fire.  This  fire  must  be  struck  from 
a  flint,  or  reach  them  mysteriously  by  lightning,  or  in  some  other 
way.  To  light  the  sacred  fire  with  common  fire  would  be  consid- 
ered among  them  as  a  grave  and  dangerous  transaction. 

The  Chippewas  of  the  north  kindle  a  fire  on  every  new  tomb, 
during  four  successive  nights.  They  say  that  this  symbolical 
and  sacred  light  illumined  their  solitary  and  obscure  passage  to 
the  country  of  souls.* 

A  portion  of  the  population  of  New  Mexico  consists  of  Indians, 
called  Pueblos,  from  the  fact  of  their  living  in  towns,  who  are  in  a 
semi-civilized  state,  and  in  whose  conditions  may  be  traced  an 
analogy  to  the  much  exaggerated  civilization  of  the  ancient  Mexi- 
cans. The  Pueblo  Indians  construct  and  inhabit  houses  and  vil- 
lages of  the  same  form  and  material  as  the  "  casas  grandes  "  of  the 
ancient  Mexicans,  retain  many  of  their  customs  and  domestic 
arts  as  they  have  been  handed  down  to  us,  and  numerous  traces 
of  a  common  origin. 

Among  many  of  the  forms  still  retained  by  these  people,  per- 
haps the  most  interesting  is  the  perpetuation  of  the  holy  fire,  by  the 
side  of  which  the  Aztecan  kept  a  continual  watch  for  the  return 
to  earth  of  Quetzalcoatl,  the  god  of  air,  who,  according  to  their 
tradition,  visited  the  earth  and  instructed  the  inhabitants  in  agri- 
culture and  other  useful  arts.  During  his  sojourn  he  caused  the 
earth  to  yield  tenfold  productions.  The  lazy  Mexicans  naturally 
look  back  to  this  period  as  the  "golden  age;"  and  as  this  popular 
and  beneficent  deity  on  his  departure  from  earth  promised  faith- 
fully to  return  and  visit  the  people  he  loved  so  well,  this  event  is 
confidently  expected  to  this  day.f  Quetzalcoatl  embarked  on  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  as  he  was  seen  to  steer  to  the  eastward,  his 
arrival  is  consequently  looked  for  from  that  quarter.^  When  the 

*  "  History  of  the  Western  Missions  and  Missionaries  of  the  United  States," 
by  Rev.  P.  J.  De  Smet. 

t  George  F.  Buxton,  Esq.,  member  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  the 
Ethnological  Society,  etc.,  travelled  from  Mexico  to  Leavenworth  in  the  period 
from  July  2,  1846,  to  July,  1847. 

J  Clavigero  merely  says  :  "Some  people  said  that  he  suddenly  disappeared  ; 
others  that  he  had  died  upon  that  coast" — the  Gulf  of  Coatzacualco.  Coatza- 
cualco,  a  province  extending  along  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico — the  pro- 
vince of  Vera  Cruz — to  the  Isthmus  of  Tehuantepec.  Considering  the  direction, 
might  not  Quetzalcoatl  have  been  a  missionary  from  the  City  of  Uxmal,  in  Yu- 
catan, whose  ruins  indicate  the  highest  degree  of  civilization  on  the  continent, 
and  the  centre  of  a  powerful  hierarchy. 

11 


162  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Spaniards  arrived  from  the  east,  they  were  at  first  generally  sup- 
posed to  be  messengers  from  or  descendants  of  the  god  of  air. 

This  tradition  is  common  to  the  nations  even  of  the  far-off 
north,  and  in  New  Mexico  the  belief  is  still  clung  to  by  the 
Pueblo  Indians,  who,  in  a  solitary  cave  of  the  mountain,  have  for 
centuries  continued  their  patient  vigils  by  the  undying  fire. 

Far  to  the  north,  in  the  country  of  the  Moquis.  the  hunters 
have  passed,  wonderingly,  ruins  of  large  cities  and  towns,  inhab- 
ited by  Indians,  of  the  same  construction  as  those  of  the  Pueblos, 
and  identical  with  the  casas  grandes  on  the  Gila  and  elsewhere. 

Although  the  Pueblos  are  nominally  Christians  and  have  em- 
braced the  outward  forms  of  the  holy  Catholic  faith,  they  yet,  in 
fact,  still  cling  to  the  belief  of  their  fathers,  and  celebrate  in 
secret  the  ancient  rites  of  their  religion.  The  aged  and  devout 
of  both  sexes  may  still  be  often  seen  on  their  flat  housetops  with 
their  faces  turned  to  the  rising  sun,  and  their  gaze  fixed  in  that 
direction  from  whence  they  expect,  sooner  or  later,  the  god  of 
air  (Quetzalcoatl)  will  make  his  appearance.* 

The  most  southern  part  of  the  intendancy  of  Sonora  bears  the 
name  of  Pimeria,  on  account  of  a  numerous  tribe  of  Pimas  In- 
dians who  inhabited  it.  Farther  north,  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Rio  de  la  Ascencion,  live  a  very  warlike  race  of  Indians,  the  Seris, 
to  whom  several  Mexican  savants  attribute  an  Asiatic  origin,  on 
account  of  the  analogy  between  their  name  and  that  of  the  Seri 
placed  by  ancient  geographers  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  of 
Ottocorras,  to  the  east  of  Scythia  extra  Imaum.  Two  enterpris- 
ing and  courageous  monks,  Fathers  Garces  and  Font,  were  able, 
however,  to  go  by  land  through  the  countries  inhabited  by  inde- 
pendent Indians  from  the  missions  of  La  Pimera  Alta  to  Monterey, 
and  even  to  the  port  of  San  Francisco.  This  bold  enterprise  has 
also  furnished  new  information  relative  to  the  ruins  of  La  Casa 
Grande,  considered  by  the  Mexican  historians  as  the  abode  of  the 
Aztecs  on  their  arrival  at  the  Rio  Gila,  towards  the  end  of  the 
twelfth  century. 

Father  Francisco  Garces,  accompanied  by  Father  Font,  who 
was  intrusted  with  the  observation  of  latitude,  set  out  from  the 
Presidio  d'Horcasitas  on  the  20th  of  April,  1773.  After  a  journey 
of  eleven  days  they  arrived  at  a  vast  and  beautiful  plain,  one 
league  distant  from  the  south  bank  of  the  Rio  Gila.  They  there 
discovered  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  Aztec  city,  in  the  midst  of 
which  is  the  edifice  called  La  Casa  Grande  [13].  These  ruins 
occupy  a  space  of  ground  of  more  than  a  square  league.  The 

*  Buxton. 


rf  INK"1  i  Urn 

ih  .4         I1    lilffilf     :,ii!ii,fl   HIP    >   i 


ill!    '-i   ' 

If  iy 

"'  li  : 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF   AMERICA.  163 

Casa  Grande  is  exactly  laid  down  according  to  the  four  cardinal 
points,  having  exactly  from  north  to  south  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  metres  (four  hundred  and  forty-five  feet)  in  length,  and  from  east 
to  west  eighty-four  metres  (two  hundred  and  seventy-six  feet)  in 
breadth.  It  is  constructed  of  clay  (tapia).  The  pises  are  of  an 
equal  size,  but  symmetrically  placed  ;*  the  walls  twelve  deci- 
metres (three  feet  eleven  inches)  in  thickness.  We  perceive  that 
this  edifice  had  three  stories  and  a  terrace.  The  stair  was  on  the 
outside,  and  probably  of  wood.  The  same  kind  of  construction 
is  still  to  be  found  in  all  the  villages  of  the  independent  Indians 
of  the  Moqui  west  from  New  Mexico.  We  perceive  in  the 
Casa  Grande  five  apartments,  of  which  each  is  8.3  metres  in 
length,  3.3  metres  in  breadth,  and  3.5  metres  in  height 
(27.18  feet,  10.82  feet,  and  11.48  feet).  A  wall,  interrupted 
by  large  towers,  surrounds  the  principal  edifice,  and  appears  to 
have  defended  it.  Father  Garces  discovered  the  vestiges  of  an 
ancient  canal,  which  brought  the  water  from  the  Rio  Gila  to  the 
town.  The  whole  surrounding  plain  is  covered  with  broken 
earthen  pitchers  and  pots,  prettily  painted  in  white,  red  and 
blue.  We  also  find  amidst  these  fragments  of  Mexican  stone- 
ware, pieces  of  obsidian  (itztli}.  We  must  not,  however,  con- 
found the  ruins  of  this  city  of  the  Gila,  the  centre  of  the  ancient 
civilization  of  the  Americans,  with  the  Casas  Grandes  of  New 
Biscay,  situated  between  the  presidio  of  Yanos  and  that  of  San 
Buenaventura.  The  latter  are  pointed  out  by  the  indigenous  on 
the  very  vague  supposition  that  the  Aztec  nation,  in  its  migrations 
from  Aztlan  to  Tula  and  the  valley  of  Tenochtitlan  made  three 
stations,  the  first  near  the  Lake  Tiguyo,  the  second  at  the  Rio 
Gila,  and  the  third  in  the  environs  of  Yanos. 

The  Indians  who  live  in  the  plains  adjoining  the  Casas  Grandes 
of  the  Gila,  and  who  have  never  had  the  smallest  communication 
with  the  Indians  of  Sonora,  deserve  by  no  means  the  appellation 
of  Indos  bravos.  Their  social  civilization  forms  a  singular  contrast 
with  the  state  of  the  savages  who  wander  along  the  banks  of  the 
Missouri  and  other  parts  of  Canada.  Fathers  Garces  and  Font 
found  the  Indians  to  the  south  of  the  Gila  clothed  and  assembled 
together  to  the  number  of  two  thousand  or  three  thousand,  in  vil- 
lages, where  they  peaceably  cultivated  the  soil.  They  saw  fields 
sown  with  maize,  cotton  and  gourds  (pumpkins,  probably).  The 
missionaries,  in  order  to  bring  about  the  conversion  of  these  In- 

*  It  is  built  of  layers  of  concrete,  in  sections.  The  sections  were  formed  in 
a  frame-work  and  made  continuously,  probably  until  the  whole  circuit  of  the 
building  was  surrounded. — EMORY. 


164  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

dians,  showed  them  a  picture  painted  on  a  large  piece  of  cotton 
cloth,  in  which  a  sinner  was  represented  burning  in  the  flames  of 
hell.  The  picture  terrified  them,  and  they  entreated  Father  Garces 
not  to  unroll  it  any  more,  nor  speak  to  them  of  what  would  hap- 
pen after  death.  These  Indians  are  of  a  gentle  and  sincere  char- 
acter. Father  Font  explained  to  them,  by  an  interpreter,  the 
security  which  prevailed  in  the  Christian  missions,  where  an  In- 
dian alcalde  administered  justice.  The  chief  of  Uturicut  replied  : 
"  This  order  of  things  may  be  necessary  for  you.  We  do  not  steal, 
and  we  very  seldom  disagree.  What  use  have  we,  then,  for  an 
alcalde  among  us?"  The  civilization  to  be  found  among  the  In- 
dians, as  we  approach  the  northwest  coast  of  America,  from  the 
33d  to  the  34th  degree  of  north  latitude,  is  a  very  striking  phe- 
nomenon, which  cannot  but  throw  some  light  on  the  history  of 
the  first  migrations  of  the  Mexican  nations. 

Father  Garces,  in  1773,  visited  the  country  of  the  Moqui,  watered 
by  the  Rio  de  Yaquesila.  He  was  astonished  to  find  there  an  In- 
dian town  with  two  great  squares,  houses  of  several  stories,  and 
streets  well  laid  out,  and  parallel  to  one  another.  Every  evening 
the  people  assembled  together  on  the  terraces  of  which  the  roofs  of 
the  houses  are  formed.  The  construction  of  the  edifices  of  the 
Moqui  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  Casas  Grandes,  on  the  banks 
of  the  Gila.  The  Indians  who  inhabit  the  northern  part  of  New 
Mexico  give  also  a  considerable  elevation  to  their  houses,  for  the 
sake  of  discovering  the  approach  of  their  enemies.  Everything  in 
this  country  appears  to  announce  traces  of  the  cultivation  of  the 
ancient  Mexicans.  We  are  informed,  even  by  Indian  traditions, 
that  twenty  leagues  north  from  the  Moqui,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Rio  Zaquanawas,  the  banks  of  the  Nabajoa  were  the  first  abode  of 
the  Aztecs  after  their  departure  from  Aztlan.  On  considering  the 
civilization  which  exists  on  several  points  of  the  northwest  coast  of 
America,  in  the  Moqui  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Gila,  we  are 
tempted  to  believe  (and  I  venture  to  repeat  it  here)  that  at  the 
period  of  the  migrations  of  the  Toltecs,  the  Acolhues  and  the 
Aztecs,  several  tribes  separated  from  the  great  mass  of  the  people 
to  establish  themselves  in  these  northern  regions.  However,  the 
language  spoken  by  the  Indians  of  the  Moqui,  the  Yabipais,  who 
wear  long  beards,  and  those  who  inhabit  the  plains  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  Rio  Colorado,  is  essentially  different  from  the  Mexican  lan- 
guage.* 

There  is  scarcely  a  valley  in  the  Rio  Grande  basin  in  which  the 
stone  or  adobe  foundations  of  villages  are  not  to  be  found.  East  of 

*Humboldt's  "New  Spain." 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  165 

the  Rio  Grande  there  are  at  least  three  ruined  towns  deserving  of 
special  notice.  These  are  the  ruins  of  Pecos,  Quarra,  Grand  Qui- 
vera,  and  Abo.  The  early  Spaniards  tell  us  that  Pecos  was  a  forti- 
fied town  of  several  stories.  It  was  built  upon  the  summit  of  a 
mesa  which  jutted  out  into  the  valley  of  the  stream  of  the  same 
name,  and  overlooked  the  lowlands  for  many  miles  in  both  direc- 
tions. The  pueblo  was  called  by  the  early  Spaniards  "  Tiguex." 
At  Grand  Quivera  there  are  extensive  ruins,  undoubtedly  of  In- 
dian origin,  which  fully  carry  out  the  statement  of  the  historian 
Vonegas,  and  others,  that  this  ancient  pueblo  was  a  large  fortress 
consisting  of  six  terraces  rising  in  steps  one  from  the  other.  The 
remains  of  large  acequias  are  to  be  seen  in  the  vicinity  both  of 
Grand  Quivera  and  Quarra. 

There  are  several  ruined  pueblos  upon  the  two  most  southern 
tributaries  of  the  San  Juan  river,  viz. :  the  Rio  de  Chelly  and  the 
Canon  de  Chaco.  The  most  remarkable  are  the  Pintado,  Una  Vida 
Wegigi,  Hungo  Pavia,  and  Bonito,  all  on  the  latter  stream.  Be- 
sides these  there  are  five  others  in  a  more  ruined  state.  The  pueblo 
Pintado  has  three  stories,  its  whole  elevation  being  about  thirty 
feet.  The  walls  are  built  of  small  flat  slabs  of  a  grey,  fine-grained 
sandstone  two  and  a-half  inches  thick,  and  are  put  together  with 
much  art  and  ingenuity,  by  means  of  a  kind  of  mortar  made  with- 
out lime.  The  thickness  of  the  outer  wall  of  the  first  story  is  three 
feet  at  the  base,  diminishing  at  each  successive  story  until  the  top 
wall  scarcely  exceeds  one  foot.  There  are,  as  usual,  no  external 
openings  on  the  ground  floor.  The  length  of  the  edifice  is  three 
hundred  and  ninety  feet.  The  ground  floor  contains  fifty -three 
rooms,  which  open  into  each  other  by  means  of  very  small  doors, 
in  many  instances  only  thirty-three  inches  square.  The  floors  are 
made  of  rough  beams,  over  which  transverse  cross-beams  are  laid, 
and  above  all  is  a  coating  of  bark  and  brushwood  covered  over 
with  mortar.  The  wood  appears  to  have  been  cut  with  some  blunt 
instrument. 

The  ruins  of  Wegigi  are  similar  to  those  of  Pintado,  being  six 
hundred  and  ninety  feet  in  length,  having  ninety-nine  rooms  on 
the  ground  floor.  The  Pueblo  Una  Vida  is  no  less  than  nine  hun- 
dred and  eighty-four  feet  long,  and  the  Pueblo  Bonito  is  still  more 
extensive.  The  estufa  of  the  latter  is  in  a  very  fair  state  of  preser- 
vation, one  hundred  and  eighty  feet  in  circumference,  and  the  walls 
are  regularly  formed  of  alternate  layers  of  small  and  large  stones 
held  together  with  mortar. 

Another  pueblo,  Chelto  Kette,  measured  thirteen  hundred  feet 
in  circumference,  and  was  originally  fojir  stories  high.  It  has  the 


166  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

remains  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  rooms  on  the  first  story. 
The  most  perfect  of  the  ten  ruined  pueblos  discovered  in  the  Canon 
de  Chaco  is  that  of  Hungo  Pavie  [14].  Its  circumference,  includ- 
ing the  enclosed  court,  is  eight  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet.  It 
faces,  as  usual,  the  cardinal  points,  and  contains  one  estufa,  placed 
in  the  centre  of  the  northern  wing  of  the  building. 

At  Zuni  the  terraces  face  outwards  and  rise  in  steps  towards 
the  centre,  and  while  the  ruins  in  the  Canon  de  Chaco  seem  to 
show  that  there  the  outermost  wall  was  the  highest,  many  ruins 
elsewhere  prove  that  the  opposite  was  often  the  case.  Thus  two 
forms  were  probably  in  use ;  the  one  rose  from  without  in  steps 
towards  the  centre  of  the  building,  the  other  faced  the  court-yard 
and  was  encircled  by  its  highest  walls. 

One  or  more  estufas  have  been  discovered  in  each  pueblo ;  some 
are  rectangular,  others  circular.  There  are  similar  ruins  in  the 
Valley  of  de  Chelly. 

The  country  occupying  the  fork  between  the  Great  Colorado 
and  the  Colorado  Chiquito  forms  a  part  of  that  vast  table-land, 
the  Colorado  Plateau,  through  which  both  these  streams  flow  in 
deep  canons.  The  seven  Moqui  villages  crest  the  edges  of  some 
of  the  mesas  which  form  the  south-eastern  escarpment  of  the  pla- 
teau. Further  to  the  north-west,  and  nearer  the  Colorado,  there 
is  another  group  of  pueblos  in  ruins,  larger  than  those  of  the 
Moqui  Indians,  but  situated,  like  them,  on  the  flat  summits  of 
mesas,  containing  estufas,  reservoirs,  terraces,  aqueducts,  and  walls 
of  at  least  four  stories  high.  No  traces  have  as  yet  been  found  of 
their  former  inhabitants. 

Next  we  came  to  the  ruins  on  the  Colorado  Chiquito  and  its 
southern  tributaries.  There  are  ruins  upon  El  Moro,  ruins  north 
of  Zuni,  Old  Zuni,  and  others  along  the  Zuni  River;  ruins  also  on 
the  Rio  Puercos  of  the  West,  and  there  are  most  extensive  ruins 
in  the  main  valley,  both  above  the  falls  and  between  the  falls 
and  the  entrance  of  the  canon  of  the  Chiquito,  scattered  along  a 
fertile  basin  of  at  least  a  hundred  miles  in  length.  At  Pueblo 
Creek  the  remains  of  several  fortified  pueblos  were  found,  crown- 
ing the  heights  which  command  the  Aztec  Pass  ;  but  west  of  this 
point  (long.  113°  west)  no  other  ruins  have  as  yet  (1867)  been 
found. 

Leaving  the  basin  of  the  Colorado  Chiquito,  we  pass  southward 
to  that  of  the  Rio  Gila,  where  the  most  extensive  ruins  of  all  are 
to  be  found.  Some  fine  streams  enter  this  river  on  the  north. 
The  chief  of  these  are  the  Rios  Presto,  Bonito,  San  Carlos,  Salinas, 
and  Rio  Verde,  which  latter  two  unite  before  joining  the  Gila, 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF   AMERICA.  167 

twelve  miles  from  the  Pima  villages.  The  great  New  Mexican 
guide,  Leroux,  started  northward  from  the  Pima  villages,  in  May, 
1854,  crossed  over  to  the  junction  of  the  Salinas  with  the  Rio 
Verde,  ascended  the  latter  stream,  and  crossing  from  it  to  the  35° 
parallel  route  along  the  Colorado  Chiquito.  He  represents  the 
Rio  Verde  as  a  fine,  large  stream,  in  some  places  rapid  and  deep, 
in  others  spreading  out  into  wide  lagoons.  The  ascent  was  by 
gradual  steppes,  stretching  out  on  either  side  into  plains  which 
abound  in  timber.  The  river  banks  were  covered  with  ruins  of 
stone  houses  and  regular  fortifications,  which  were  evidently  the 
work  of  a  very  civilized  people,  but  did  not  appear  to  have  been 
inhabited  for  centuries.  They  are  built  on  the  most  fertile  tracts 
of  the  valley,  where  were  signs  of  acequias  and  of  cultivation. 
The  walls  were  of  solid  masonry,  of  rectangular  form,  some  twenty 
or  thirty  paces  in  length,  and  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  in  height. 
They  were  usually  of  two  stories,  with  small  apertures  or  loop- 
holes, and  reminded  him  strongly  of  the  Moqui  pueblos.  At  one 
place  he  encountered  a  well-built  fortified  town,  ten  miles  distant 
from  the  nearest  water. 

Other  travellers  and  prospectors  report  many  ruined  pueblos 
about  the  Salinas,  others  on  the  San  Carlos,  and  several  very 
extensive  ones  in  the  fertile  Tonto  basin,  which  is  drained  by  a 
tributary  of  the  Salinas.  A  little  west  of  the  northern  extremity 
of  the  Burro  Mountains  the  Rio  Gila  leaves  the  Santa  Rita  and 
other  ranges,  and  meanders  for  a  distance  of  from  seventy  to  one 
hundred  miles  through  an  open  valley  of  considerable  width. 
This  long  strip  of  fertile  bottom-land  is  studded  throughout  with 
the  foundations  of  pueblos.  It  is  impossible  to  travel  more  than 
a  mile  or  two  without  encountering  them,  and  at  least  one  hun- 
dred thousand  people,  says  one  of  the  guides  who  knew  the  ground 
well,  must  at  one  time  have  occupied  this  valley.  The  ruins  fol- 
low the  river  quite  to  the  mouth  of  the  first  canon  by  which  the 
Gila  cuts  through  the  Pina-leno  Mountains. 

All  along  the  San  Pedro  valley,  for  one  hundred  and  sixty 
miles,  ruined  pueblos  are  frequently  met  with.  Between  Camp 
Grant  and  the  Pima  villages  the  mesas  bordering  on  the  Gila  are 
pretty  thickly  studded  with  ruins,  but  further  west  than  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Rio  Verde  no  such  traces  of  pueblos  are  to  be 
found.* 

Two  good-sized  ruins  are  situated  near  the  Pima  villages.     One 

*  An  interesting  description  of  the  borders  of  the  Gila  will  be  found  in  "  Notes 
of  a  Military  Reconnoissance  "  from  Fort  Leavenworth  to  San  Diego,  made  in 
1846-1847  by  W.  H.  Emory,  then  Major  and  afterwards  General  U.  S.  A. 


168  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

is  known  as  Casa  Montezuma,  or  Casa  Blanca ;  the  other  as  Casa 
Grande.  The  former  consists  of  the  remains  of  five  large  houses, 
one  of  which  is  tolerably  perfect  as  a  ruin.  Around  it  are  piles  of 
earth,  showing  where  others  had  been,  and  although  ten  miles  dis- 
tant from  the  river,  all  the  intervening  space  is  intersected  by  ace- 
quias,  and  was,  no  doubt,  under  cultivation.  The  chief  ruin  is 
four  stories  high  and  forty  by  fifty  feet  wide.*  The  walls  face  the 
cardinal  points,  and  there  are  four  estufas  four  feet  by  two  in 
size.  The  rafters  inside  were  almost  entirely  destroyed  by  fire. 
The  walls  consisted  of  brick,  mortar  and  pebbles,  smoothed  with- 
out and  plastered  within. 

Casa  Grande  is  situated  a  little  below  the  junction  of  the  Rio 
Verde  and  the  Salinas.  It  is  a  rectangular  ruin,  two  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  by  sixty-eight  feet,  whose  sides  face  the  cardinal  points. 
The  highest  walls  are,  as  usual,  found  in  the  centre  of  the  pile, 
and  they  appear  to  have  been  three  or  four  stories  high.  Besides 
abundance  of  broken  pottery  are  found  sea-shells,  often  pierced, 
and  otherwise  converted  into  ornaments,  about  the  ruins  which 
skirt  the  Gila  and  neighboring  streams,  showing  that  these  people 
must  have  had  some  intercourse  with  tribes  living  along  the  coast. 

One  more  cluster  of  ruins,  which,  although  they  lie  south  of  the 
boundary,  belong  to  the  same  class  as  those  which  have  been 
mentioned,  are  the  Casas  Grandes  and  Casa  de  Janos,  situated  on 
the  Rio  Casas  Grandes,  which  flows  northward  into  the  Laguna  de 
Guzman  in  north-western  Chihuahua.  The  former,  according  to 
Clavigero,  is  similar  in  every  respect  to  the  ruined  fortresses  of 
New  Mexico,  consisting  of  three  floors  with  a  terrace  above  them, 
and  without  an  entrance  to  the  ground  floor.  The  doors  led  into 
the  buildings  on  the  second  floor,  so  that  ladders  were  necessary. 
The  following  particulars  are  from  Bartlett's  personal  narrative : 

"  The  ruins  of  Casas  Grandes  consist  of  fallen  and  erect  walls, 
the  latter  varying  in  height  from  five  to  thirty  feet,  projecting  above 
the  heaps  of  ruins  which  have  crumbled  to  decay.  Were  the 
height  estimated  from  the  foundations  it  would  be  much  greater, 
particularly  of  those  of  the  centre  part  of  the  building,  where  the 
fallen  walls  and  rubbish  form  a  mound  twenty  feet  above  the 
ground.  If,  therefore,  the  highest  walls  were  standing,  from  their 
foundation  on  the  lowest  level,  their  probable  height  was  from 
forty  to  fifty  feet.  I  conclude  that  the  outer  portions  of  the 
building  were  the  lowest — about  one  story  high;  while  the  central 

*  J.  Boss  Brown,  in  his  "  Tour  Through  Sonora  and  Arizona,"  gives  40  feet 
by  50  as  the  dimensions  of  the  Casa  Grande.  General  Emory,  U.S. A.,  describes 
the  Casa  Grande  of  the  Gila. 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  169 

ones,  judging  from  the  height  of  the  walls  now  standing  and  the 
accumulation  of  rubbish,  were  probably  from  three  to  six  stories. 
Every  portion  of  the  building  is  made  of  adobe,  which  differs 
from  that  now  made  by  the  Mexicans  in  that  the  blocks  are  very 
much  larger,  being  fourteen  or  sixteen  inches  long,  twelve  inches 
wide,  and  three  or  four  thick ;  the  others  are  usually  twenty -two 
inches  in  thickness  and  three  feet  or  more  in  length.*  Gravel  was 
mixed  with  these  large  adobes,  which  greatly  increases  their  hard- 
ness, but  no  straw  was  used.  The  building  consists  of  three 
masses,  united  by  walls,  of  probably  but  one  story,  forming,  per- 
haps, only  court-yards ;  they  are  now  weather-beaten  down  to 
long  lines  of  mounds. 

"  The  centre  edifice  extends  from  north  to  south  eight  hundred 
feet  and  from  east  to  west  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet.  The  general 
character  is  very  similar  to  Casas  Grandes,  near  the  Pima  villages 
and  the  ruins  on  the  Salinas.  Not  a  fragment  of  wood  remains ; 
many  doorways  are  to  be  seen,  but  the  long  sills  have  gone,  and 
the  top  has,  in  most  cases,  crumbled  away  and  fallen  in. 

"  Some  of  the  apartments  arranged  along  the  main  walls  are 
twenty  feet  by  ten,  and  connected  by  doorways  with  a  small  en- 
closure or  pen  in  one  corner,  between  three  and  four  feet  high. 
Besides  these  there  are  many  other  exceedingly  narrow  apart- 
ments, too  contracted  for  dwelling-places  or  sleeping-rooms,  and 
into  which  the  light  was  admitted  by  circular  apertures  in  the 
upper  part  of  the  wall.  There  are  also  large  halls,  and  some  en- 
closures within  the  walls  are  so  extensive  that  they  could  never 
have  been  covered  with  a  roof.  The  lesser  ranges  of  buildings 
which  surround  the  principal  one  may  have  been  occupied  by  the 
people  at  large,  whose  property  was  deposited  within  the  great  build- 
ing for  safe  keeping.  Although  there  appears  to  be  less  order  in 
the  tout  ensemble  of  this  great  collection  of  buildings  than  in  those 
farther  north,  the  number  of  small  apartments,  the  several  stages 
or  stories,  the  inner  courts,  and  some  of  the  minor  details,  resemble 
in  many  respects  the  large  edifices  of  the  semi-civilized  Indians 
of  New  Mexico. 

"  The  builders  showed  much  sagacity  in  their  choice  of  so  fine 
a  region  for  agricultural  purposes.  There  is  none  equal  to  it  from 
the  lowlands  of  Texas,  near  San  Antonio,  to  the  fertile  valleys  of 
California,  near  Los  Angeles  ;  and  with  the  exception  of  the  Rio 
Grande,  there  is  not  one  valley  equal  in  size  to  that  of  the  Casas 

*  It  is  well  to  remark  that  the  size  and  consistency  of  these  blocks  of  concrete 
were  the  same  as  those  of  the  Casa  Grande  of  the  Gila,  which  gives  a  probability 
that  both  these  buildings  were  constructed  by  the  same  people. 


170  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Grandes,  between  those  of  eastern  Texas  and  the  Colorado  of  the 
West.  The  water  of  the  Rio  Casas  Grandes,  unlike  that  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  Pecos,  and  Colorado,  is  clear,  sweet,  and  sparkling." 

When  New  Mexico  was  discovered,  all  the  country  extending 
from  Culiacan  to  the  desert  of  Cibola  on  one  side,  and  to  the 
Rio  Colorado  on  the  other,  was  but  a  succession  of  towns,  villages 
and  habitations  joined  together  by  cultivated  fields,  orchards, 
gardens  and  roads.  But  those  great  multitudes  of  human  beings 
have  almost  disappeared  since  the  conquests ;  the  silence  of  the 
wilderness  has  succeeded  the  joyful  songs  of  the  extinct  popu- 
lations, and  the  aridity  of  the  desert  replaces  the  primitive  fertility 
of  the  soil.* 

On  the  10th  of  November,  1582,  Antonio  de  Espejo  left  the  val- 
ley of  San  Bartolo  (one  hundred  leagues  from  the  city  of  Mexico) 
at  the  head  of  an  expedition,  to  explore  the  Rio  del  Norte,  and  to 
discover  the  fate  of  two  friars,  Lopez  and  Ruyz,  who  were  reported 
to  have  been  murdered  there. 

Directing  his  course  northward,  he  met  with  great  numbers  of 
Conchos  (Papagos),  who  dwelt  in  hamlets  covered  with  straw. 
These  Indians  went  nearly  naked,  cultivated  corn,  pumpkins,  and 
melons,  and  were  armed  with  bows  and  arrows.  They  worshipped 
neither  idols  nor  aught  else.  The  caciques  sent  information  of  the 
expedition  from  one  town  to  another,  and  the  party  was  well- 
treated.  They  passed  through  Passagautes,  the  Zoboses,  and  the 
Jumanes,  who  were  called  by  the  Spaniards  Patarabueges.  Their 
villages  are  upon  the  Rio  del  Norte ;  their  houses  are  flat-roofed, 
and  built  of  mortar  and  stone.  These  people  were  well-clothed, 
and  seemed  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  Catholic  faith.  As- 
cending the  Rio  del  Norte,  they  discovered  another  province  of 
Indians,  who  showed  them  many  curious  things  made  of  feathers 
of  divers  colors,  and  many  cotton  mantles,  striped  blue  and 
white,  like  those  brought  from  China.  These  people  showed  by 
signs  that  five  days'  journey  westward  there  were  precious  metals. 

Journeying  thence  northward  along  the  Rio  del  Norte,  they 
were  well-received  amongst  a  numerous  population.  Here  they 
were  told  by  a  Concho  Indian  who  accompanied  them,  that  fifteen 

*  "  The  Great  Deserts  of  North  America,"  by  Abbe  Doruenech,  Alvarez  Nu- 
nez. Cabena  de  Vacca,  who  accompanied  Narvaez  on  his  expedition  into  Florida, 
in  his  wanderings  from  1527  to  1536,  passed  through  this  region,  and  represents 
it  as  more  civilized  and  more  populous  than  others.  Several  places  he  passed 
through  were  very  populous.  He  traveled  on  foot  from  the  Rio  Colorado  of 
Texas  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  then,  apparently,  through  a  desert  to  Culiacan 
and  the  City  of  Mexico. 


CHAP.  XVI.]  OF    AMEEICA. 

days'  journey  towards  the  west  could  be  found  a  broad  lake  and 
great  towns  with  houses  three  and  four  stories  high.  They  noted 
particularly  the  "  specially  "  excellent  temperature  of  the  climate, 
good  soil,  and  abundance  of  precious  metals. 

From  this  province  they  travelled  fifteen  days  without  meeting 
anyone,  passing  through  woods  of  pine  trees. 

Having  thus  travelled  eighty  leagues,  they  arrived  at  villages 
where  there  was  much  excellent  white  salt.  Ascending  the  valley 
of  the  Rio  del  Norte  twelve  leagues  farther,  they  arrived  at  the 
country  which  they  called  New  Mexico.  Here,  all  along  the  banks  of 
the  river,  grew  mighty  woods  of  poplar,  in  some  places  four  leagues 
broad,  and  great  store  of  walnut  trees  and  vines.  Having  travelled 
two  days  through  these  woods,  they  arrived  at  ten  towns  situated 
upon  both  sides  of  the  river,  where  were  about  ten  thousand  per- 
sons. Here  were  houses  four  stories  in  height,  with  "  stoves  for 
the  winter  season."  They  had  "  plenty  of  victuals  and  hens  of  the 
country."*  "  Their  garments  were  of  cotton  and  deerskins,  and  the 
attire  of  both  men  and  women  was  after  the  manner  of  the  Indi- 
ans of  Mexico.  Both  men  and  women  wore  boots  and  shoes  with 
good  soles  of  leather — a  thing  never  seen  in  any  other  part  of  the 

Indies."f 

"  There  are  caciques  who  govern  the  people,  like  the  caciques 
of  Mexico,  with  sergeants  to  execute  their  orders.  In  all  their 
arable  grounds,  whereof  they  have  great  plenty,  they  erect  on 
one  side  a  little  cottage,  or  shed,  standing  upon  four  poles,  under 
which  the  laborers  eat  and  pass  away  the  heat  of  the  day  ;  for  they 
are  a  people  much  given  to  labor.  This  country  is  full  of  moun- 
tains and  forests  of  pine  trees.  Their  weapons  are  strong  bows, 
and  arrows  pointed  with  flints.  They  also  use  targets  or  shields 
made  of  raw  hide." 

After  remaining  four  days  in  this  province,  not  far  off  they  came 
to  another,  called  the  province  of  Tiguas  (Tiguex),  containing  six- 
teen towns,  in  one  of  which  the  two  friars,  Lopez  and  Ruyz,  had 
been  slain.  Hence  the  inhabitants  fled.  The  Spaniards,  entering 
the  town,  found  plenty  of  food,  hens,  and  rich  metals.  Here  they 
heard  of  many  rich  towns  far  towards  the  east.  Two  days'  journey 
from  the  province  of  Tiguex  they  found  another  province,  contain- 
ing eleven  towns  and  about  forty  thousand  inhabitants.  The 
country  was  fertile  and  bordered  on  Civola,  where  was  abundance 

*  Might  not  this  mean  grouse,  prairie  hens  ? 

t  The  most  civilized  Indians  that  De  Soto  met  with  in  Florida  were  those  of 
Cofacique,  on  the  Savannah  river  ;  they  were  well-shod.  "Deer  skins1'  in  con- 
nection with  dress  means  ''  buckskin,"  dressed  like  chamois  skins. 


172  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVI. 

of  kine.*  Here  were  signs  of  "  very  rich  mines."  Having  returned 
to  Tiguex,  they  ascended  the  Rio  del  Norte  six  leagues,  to  another 
province,  called  Los  Quires.  Here  they  found  five  towns,  and 
fourteen  thousand  persons  who  worshipped  idols.  Among  the 
curious  things  seen  at  this  place,  were  a  pig  in  a  cage  and  "  cano- 
pies like  those  brought  from  China"  upon  which  were  painted  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars.  The  height  of  the  polar  star  led  them  to 
believe  themselves  in  north  latitude  37°  SCX. 

Pursuing  the  same  northerly  course,  fourteen  leagues,  they  found 
another  province,  inhabited  by  Cumanes  (or  Pumanes),  with  five 
towns,  of  which  Ciazia  was  the  greatest,  having  twenty  thousand 
persons,  eight  market-places,  and  houses  plastered  and  painted  in 
divers  colors.  The  inhabitants  presented  them  with  mantles  curi- 
ously wrought,  and  showed  rich  metals,  and  mountains  near  which 
were  the  mines.  Having  travelled  six  leagues  northwest  they  came 
to  Amcres,  where  were  seven  great  towns  and  thirty  thousand 
souls.  One  of  the  towns  was  said  to  be  very  great  and  fair,  but  as 
it  stood  behind  a  mountain  they  feared  to  approach  it.  Fifteen 
leagues  west  they  found  a  great  town,  called  Acerna,  containing 
about  six  thousand  persons,  and  situated  upon  a  high  rock,  which 
was  about  fifty  paces  high,  having  no  entrance  except  by  stairs 
hewn  into  the  rock.  The  water  of  this  town  was  kept  in  cisterns. 
Their  cornfields,  two  leagues  distant,  were  watered  from  a  small 
river,  upon  the  banks  of  which  were  roses.  Many  mountains  in 
this  vicinity  showed  signs  of  metals,  but  they  went  not  to  see  them. 

Twenty-four  leagues  westward  from  Acerna  they  arrived  at 
Zuni,  by  the  Spaniards  called  Cibola,  containing  great  numbers  of 
Indians.  Here  were  three  Christian  Indians,  left  by  Coronado  in 
1540.  They  informed  Espejo  that  "  threescore  days'  journey  from 
this  place  was  a  mighty  lake,  upon  the  banks  whereof  stood  many 
great  and  good  towns,  and  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  same  had 
plenty  of  gold,  as  shown  by  their  wearing  golden  bracelets  and 
earrings."  They  said  that  Coronado  intended  to  have  gone  there, 
but,  having  travelled  twelve  days' journey,  he  began  to  want  water 
and  returned.  Espejo,  desirous  of  seeing  this  rich  country,  de- 
parted from  Cibola,  and  having  travelled  twenty- eight  leagues  west 
found  another  great  provincef  of  about  fifty  thousand  souls.  As 
they  approached  a  town  called  Zaquato,  the  multitude  with  their 
cacique  met  them  with  great  joy,  and  poured  corn  upon  the  ground 
for  their  horses  to  walk  upon,  and  they  presented  the  captain  with 
forty  thousand  mantles  of  cotton,  white  and  colored,  and  many 

*  Probably  buffaloes.  t  "Mohotze  (Moqui?)." 


CHAP.  XVII.]  OF   AMERICA.  173 

hard  towels  with  tassels  at  the  four  corners,  and  rich  metals  which 
seemed  to  contain  much  silver.  Thence  travelling  forty-five  leagues 
due  west,  they  found  the  mines  of  which  they  had  been  informed, 
and  took  out  with  their  own  hands  rich  metals  containing  silver. 
The  mines,  which  were  in  a  broad  vein,  were  in  a  mountain* 
easily  ascended  by  an  open  way  to  the  same.  In  the  vicinity  of 
the  mines  there  were  numerous  Indian  pueblos.  Hereabout  they 
found  two  riversf  of  a  reasonable  bigness,  upon  the  banks  whereof 
grew  many  vines  bearing  excellent  grapes,  and  great  groves  of  wal- 
nut trees,  and  much  flax,  like  that  of  Castile. 

Captain  Espejo  then  returned  to  Zuni.  Thence  he  determined 
to  ascend  still  higher  up  the  Rio  del  Norte.  Having  travelled  sixty 
leagues  toward  the  province  of  Quires,  twelve  leagues  farther  east 
they  found  a  province  of  Indians,  called  Habates,  containing 
twenty-five  thousand  people,  well  dressed  in  colored  mantles  of 
cotton  and  hides.  They  had  many  mountains  full  of  pines  and 
cedars,  and  the  houses  of  these  towns  were  four  or  five  stories  high. 
Here  they  had  notice  of  another  province,  distant  one  day's  jour- 
ney thence,  inhabited  by  Indians,  called  Tamos  (Toas),  and  con- 
taining forty  thousand  souls.  But  this  people  having  refused 
admittance  to  their  towns  the  Spaniards  returned,  and  following 
one  hundred  and  twenty  leagues  down  a  river  called  Rio  de  las 
Vacas  (Rio  Pecos),  united  again  with  the  Rio  del  Norte,  and  went 
homeward  in  July,  1583. 

Espejo  describes  no  less  than  sixteen  provinces  or  kingdoms,  and 
mentions  others  from  hearsay  ;  and  if  his  estimates  of  population  at 
all  approach  the  truth,  there  were  far  more  people  in  that  one  valley 
in  the  sixteenth  century  than  there  are  now  in  the  whole  of  New 
Mexico  and  Arizona  united,  including  both  Mexicans  and  Ameri- 
cans.J 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg's  Observations  on  Central  America,  etc. 

THE  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Civilized 
Nations  of  Mexico  and  Central  America,"  has  the  following :  The 

*  "  Probably  San  Francisco  Mountain,"  Rio  Verde. 

t  "  Probably  the  Colorado  Chequito  (Rio del  Lino)  and  Rio  Verde." 

1  "  A  Journal  of  Travel  and  Adventure  in  the  Survey  for  a  Southern  Railroad 

to  the  Pacific  Ocean  during  1867-8."     By  William  A.  Bell,  M.A.,  M.B.,  etc. 

With  contributions  by  General  W.  J.  Palmer,  Major  A.  R.  Calhoun,  C.  C.  Parry, 

M.D.,  and  Captain  W.  F.  Colton. 


174  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVII. 

object  which  we  propose  to  ourselves  is  to  re-establish  the  facts 
altered  by  ignorance  or  concealed  by  Spanish  jealousy  ;  to  make 
known  the  nations  whom  a  cold  indifference  has  disdained ;  to 
seek  their  origin,  and  replace  them  as  near  as  possible  in  the  rank 
to  which  they  belong,  according  to  the  order  of  the  general  civili- 
zation of  which  we  write  the  history.  Mexico  and  Central  Ameri- 
ca, from  the  time  of  their  discovery,  have  attracted  the  attention 
of  intelligent  men.  The  ruins  of  ancient  American  cities  discov- 
ered in  forests,  where  they  lay  unknown  for  centuries,  have  in- 
creased in  our  day  the  desire  to  fathom  the  mysteries  which  still 
envelope  their  history.  It  is  to  respond  to  this  desire  that  we 
ourselves  have  labored  so  actively  for  more  than  twenty  years  to 
unite  in  the  same  picture  the  scattered  documents  of  which  this 
history  must  be  composed.  It  is  to  satisfy  this  penchant  that  we 
have  travelled  so  long  a  time  in  these  immense  regions,  and  lived 
among  the  indigenous  populations  of  Mexico  and  Central  Ameri- 
ca, in  the  hope  of  informing  ourselves  more  certainly,  by  their 
contact,  of  their  traditions,  their  manners  and  their  languages. 

In  the  book  which  we  write  we  do  not  adopt  particularly  any 
of  the  imaginary  systems  on  the  subject  of  their  origin  or  of  their 
civilization.  We  simply  combine  what  we  have  collected  from 
the  original  documents  written  by  the  Indians  before  and  after 
the  conquest,  and  we  relate  what  we  have  heard  from  their  mouth 
in  order  to  enable  the  reader  to  judge  personally  of  the  cosmo- 
gonic  notions,  religious  and  historic,  of  American  antiquity,  and 
to  leave  to  him  all  his  liberty  to  form  comparisons  between  the 
peoples  of  the  ancient  and  the  new  world. 

For  half  a  century  the  passage  of  the  Asiatics  and  Esquimaux 
by  the  Straits  of  Behring  has  been  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  histori- 
cal certainty  by  the  researches  of  a  great  number  of  savants,  but 
they  have  never  maintained  that  all  the  Americans  have  descended 
from  the  colonies  arrived  from  Asia.  Acosta  and  Clavigero,  how- 
ever, in  supporting  the  first  of  these  opinions  with  their  suffrage, 
are  of  a  mixed  opinion,  which  unites  equally  the  claims  of  the 
European,  the  Asiatics,  the  Africans,  and  even  of  the  peoples  of 
the  ocean.  But  they  rely,  especially  in  regard  to  the  first,  upon 
the  physiological  character,  which  in  many  respects  the  American 
race  resembles  that  of  the  Mongolians  who  peopled  the  north  and 
east  of  Asia,  as  also  that  of  the  Malays,  or  the  men  the  least 
tawny,  of  Polynesia  and  the  other  archipelagoes  of  the  ocean. 
This  resemblance,  which,  however,  extends  only  to  the  color  and 
some  traits  of  the  countenance,  does  not  embrace  the  more  essential 
parts,  such  as  the  skull,  the  hair,  and  the  facial  angle.  If  in  the 


CHAP.  XVII.]  OF   AMERICA.  175 

system  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race  we  would  consider  the 
Americans  as  a  branch  of  the  Mongolian  stock,  we  must  suppose 
that  during  a  long  succession  of  ages  it  has  been  separated  from 
the  trunk  and  been  subject  to  the  slow  action  of  a  particular  cli- 
mate. It  is  the  opinion  of  Clavigero  and  of  the  wise  Abbe  Hervas, 
who  rightl}'  insist  upon  the  high  antiquity  of  the  American  na- 
tions. 

It  is  believed  also  that  there  are  found  proofs  of  Asiatic  emigra- 
tion in  the  languages  of  the  New  World.  But  as  the  wise  and 
modest  Gallatin  remarks,  physiology  does  not  yet  enable  us  to 
draw  any  positive  conclusions  on  this  subject,  and  it  is  not  proba- 
ble that  the  isolated  comparison  of  vocabularies  can  give  us  much 
light.  There  are,  perhaps,  more  than  two  hundred  languages  in 
America.  Notwithstanding  the  resemblance  of  their  construction 
and  grammatical  form,  they  have  generally  but  few  of  them  in 
their  words.  We  can  discover  remarkable  coincidences  between 
these  words  and  those  of  other  languages,  but  these  coincidences 
do  not  suffice  yet  to  establish  between  the  American  idioms  and 
those  of  other  countries  the  proof,  or  even  the  indication,  of  a 
common  origin.  The  knowledge  of  the  languages  of  the  north- 
east of  Asia  and  of  the  interior  of  America  is  yet  very  limited. 
We  must  therefore  await  more  complete  investigations  before  we 
can  pronounce  wisely  upon  this  matter. 

In  seeing  this  multitude  and  prodigious  diversity  of  American 
languages,  would  not  the  first  idea  be  to  conclude  that  the  New 
World  must  have  been  peopled  not  by  a  few  distinct  nations,  but 
by  a  great  number  of  families  absolutely  different  one  from  the 
other  ?  This  hypothesis,  so  improbable  in  itself,  is,  besides,  in- 
compatible with  the  physical  conformation,  and  the  construction 
of  the  idioms  of  the  greater  part  of  the  indigenous  nations  and 
tribes,  among  which  they  find  so  great  a  resemblance  in  modern 
times. 

If,  as  is  probable,  this  extraordinary  subdivision  has  operated 
in  America,  we  cannot  do  otherwise  than  admit  the  longest  period 
possible,  the  slow  operation  of  time  being  necessary  to  accomplish 
the  changes  of  which  the  languages,  not  the  writings,  are  suscep- 
tible to  separate  the  masses  into  bodies  of  divers  nations,  and  to 
put  at  a  distance  the  nomadic  population  from  those  who  consti- 
tuted themselves  into  civil  communities.  We  can  therefore  regard 
as  certain  that  America  has  received  its  population  at  a  date  suf- 
ficiently remote  for  the  providential  laws  relative  to  the  multipli- 
cation of  the  human  species  and  its  dispersion  over  the  extent 
of  the  hemisphere  to  have  their  full  effect.  The  variety  and  pro- 


176  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVII. 

digious  number  of  American  languages  are,  consequently,  proofs, 
not  only  of  the  high  antiquity  of  the  Indians,  but  also  of  the  cer- 
tainty that  the  great  mass  of  indigines  actually  existing  is  derived 
from  these  primitive  migrations.* 

After  having  established  the  antiquity  of  the  original  stock  of 
the  population  of  America,  we  can  likewise  affirm  that  the  suc- 
cessive migrations  which  have  since  been  able  to  establish  them- 
selves on  the  Western  Continent  have  not  been  sufficiently  numer- 
ous to  efface  or  alter  its  distinctive  character.f  It  is  thus,  for 
example,  that  the  greater  part  of  the  languages  spoken  in  the 
Guatamalian  States  and  in  the  great  State  of  Chiapas  appear  to 
have  for  their  base  the  Maya  idiom,  still  spread  throughout 
Yucatan. 

As  to  the  passage  of  man  from  one  hemisphere  to  the  other,  it 
presents  much  less  difficulty  than  we  can  imagine.  Without 
speaking  of  the  Strait  of  Behring,  we  know  that  there  would  be 
nothing  easier  than  for  the  inhabitants  of  Mantchouri  or  of  Japan 
to  transfer  themselves,  in  a  few  days,  to  the  coasts  of  America  by 
following  the  almost  continuous  chain  of  the  Kourilien  Islands, 
which  extend  from  Japan  to  Kamtschatka,  and  thence  along  the 
Aleutian  to  Alaska  in  the  55°  of  northern  latitude.  We  know, 
besides,  that  the  first  modern  discoveries  were  generally  the  result 
of  coasting  trade,  undertaken  from  island  to  island  or  along  the 
coasts.  It  was  thus  that  the  Malais  peopled  most  of  the  inter- 
tropical  islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  the  peopling  of  which  is, 
however,  much  less  explicable  than  that  of  the  New  World. 
Navigators  mention  more  than  one  example  of  a  canoe  or  of  a 
boat  picked  up  in  the  vast  ocean  whose  men  wandered  from  their 
country,  nourishing  themselves  with  fish  which  they  caught  by 
chance,  and  drinking  of  rain-water.  It  has  been  scarcely  eight 

*  Gallatin,  "Notes  on  the  Semi-civilized  Nations  of  Mexico,"  etc. 

f  The  population  of  the  United  States  shows  the  small  effect  that  immigration 
produces  on  the  original  stock,  which  was  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
The  original  States  being  British  colonies,  the  Hollanders,  the  French,  the 
Swedes,  and  the  Palatines,  produced  little  or  no  effect  on  the  nucleus  of  the 
nation  ;  and  so  with  subsequent  immigrations,  they  have  all  been,  or  will  be, 
absorbed  in  the  original,  all  will  be  and  continue  an  English-speaking  nation. 
It  has  been  more  difficult  to  amalgamate  the  later  immigrants  ;  for  they  came 
in  larger  numbers,  and  some  colonized  themselves,  stuck  to  their  foreign  habits, 
customs,  and  language,  and  did  not  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  American  peo- 
ple with  the  same  quickness  as  the  smaller  bodies  of  earlier  immigrants.  They 
came  as  Italians,  Germans,  Swedes,  Polanders,  French,  Spaniards,  etc. ,  but  they 
do  not  remain  such  ;  and  so  it  was  probable  with  the  immigration  to  America 
in  remote  antiquity. 


CHAP.  XVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  177 

years  ago  that  a  Japanese  junk  lost  on  its  route  was  met  by  a  ship 
of  the  United  States  at  about  a  hundred  miles  from  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  conducted,  with  its  crew,  to  that  port.  How  many 
examples  of  a  similar  kind  could  not  history  reveal  to  us  of  men 
driven  by  accidents  of  the  sea  on  the  coasts  of  America,  and  who 
afterwards  mingled  their  blood  with  that  of  the  primitive  races  ? 

The  same  causes  could  have  led  to  the  same  results  in  the  east 
as  in  the  west ;  and  the  evidence  of  antiquity  fails  not  to  explain 
the  voyages  of  long  course  undertaken  to  unknown  regions  of  the 
west  by  the  people  of  the  Mediterranean  coast.  The  cod-fishery 
upon  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  is  more  ancient  than  the  epoch 
of  Columbus,  and  we  believe  it  would  be  rashness  to  assign  that 
when  it  began.  The  numerous  hordes  that  by  turns  inundated 
Europe  and  Asia,  which  peopled  the  lakes  and  islands  of  Scandi- 
navia, whence  afterwards  issued  the  famous  pirates  who  changed 
the  destiny  of  France,  have  they  not  been  able,  in  their  adven- 
turous excursions  in  the  midst  of  the  ice  which  environed  Iceland, 
to  arrive  even  at  the  new  continent?  The  American  traditions 
make  allusions  more  than  once,  in  a  manner  very  plain,  to  the 
voyages  of  the  Quichee  tribes  coming  from  the  east,  from  a  region 
cold  and  icy,  through  a  hazy  sea,  to  regions  not  less  gloomy  and 
cold,  whence  afterwards  they  directed  their  course  to  the  south. 
These  traditions  certainly  deserve  great  attention.  The  progress 
of  these  tribes  was  slow  and  painful,  and  the  details  are  not  want- 
ing on  this  subject ;  they  had  to  struggle  more  than  once  with  the 
elements,  with  the  rigors  of  a  boreal  climate  and  the  troubles  of 
snow,  which  often  extinguished  the  fires  near  which  they  warmed 
themselves ;  they  had  to  contend  with  the  populations  among 
whom  they  passed,  in  the  midst  of  which  they  left  more  than  one 
colony,  before  they  arrived  at  the  temperate  regions,  where  their 
descendants  are  now  found. 

It  is  certain  that  most  of  the  traditions  which  we  have  found  in 
the  Indian  monuments,  among  the  indigenes,  announce  a  distant 
point  of  departure,  and  cause  a  supposition  of  a  common  origin 
with  the  race  of  men.  What  is  not  less  remarkable  is,  that  there 
are  very  few  of  these  traditions  which  do  not  assign  the  east  as 
the  cradle  of  the  human  race.  Doubtless  there  were  tribes  that 
came  from  the  north-west,  and  there  were  some  that  came  from 
the  south,  but  if  you  interrogate  their  history,  if  you  ask  them 
how  their  first  ancestors  arrived  in  the  north-west,  they  answer 
that  they  first  departed  from  the  place  where  the  sun  rises.*  We 

*  The  Peruvians  and  the  Natchez  Indian  chiefs,  at  almost  the  opposite  ex- 
tremities of  America,  claimed  the  sun  as  their  origin,  and  called  themselves 

12 


178  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVII. 

do  not,  however,  claim  that  some  have  not  come  from  elsewhere ; 
we  simply  establish  the  fact  in  support  of  which  the  greater  part 
of  the  American  natives  who  have  preserved  any  memorial  of 
their  origin  range  themselves. 

In  the  vast  territories  comprised  within  the  basin  of  the  Missis- 
sippi and  its  affluents  there  are  seen  in  many  places  rude  monu- 
ments, but  imposing  in  their  grandeur  and  extent,  whose  origin  is 
lost  in  the  night  of  ages.  There  are  tumuli  or  tombs  of  a  conical 
form,  pyramids  of  cyclopean  proportions,  immense  enclosures 
constructed  of  earth  mingled  with  stone.  If,  after  this,  we  think 
of  the  monuments  which  an  unknown  people  have  left  in  southern 
Siberia,  compare  the  epochs  of  the  primitive  emigrations  of  the 
civilized  populations  of  the  Aztec  plateau  and  that  of  the  great 
revolutions  of  Asia  at  the  time  of  the  first  movements  of  the  Huns, 
we  are  tempted  to  believe  that  we  see  in  the  ancestors  of  the  Mexi- 
cans the  remains  of  a  civilized  nation  which  had  fled  from  the 
borders  of  the  Irtich  or  of  the  lake  Baikal  to  escape  from  the  yoke 
of  the  barbarous  hordes  of  the  great  Asiatic  plateau. 

The  great  emigration  of  the  American  tribes  of  the  north  is  equally 
established  by  divers  traditions.  All  the  nations  of  the  south  of 
the  United  States  claim  to  have  arrived  from  the  west  in  crossing 
the  Mississippi.  According  to  the  Muscogulges,  the  great  people 
from  whence  they  sprung  still  dwell  in  the  west;  their  arrival  does 
not  appear  to  date  but  from  the  sixteenth  century.  The  Chippe- 
was  are  the  only  ones  whose  traditions  indicate  to  a  certain  point 
their  departure  from  Asia.  They  say  they  inhabited  a  country 
very  remote  to  the  west,  from  whence  a  wicked  nation  had  driven 
them.  They  traversed  a  long  lake  filled  with  islands  and  heaps 
of  ice ;  winter  reigned  everywhere  on  their  passage.  They  landed 
near  the  Copper  river.  These  circumstances  cannot  apply  but  to  a 
people  of  Siberia,  who  would  have  passed  the  strait  of  Behring, 
or  sailed  along  the  Aleutian  Islands.  Nevertheless,  the  Chippewa 
language  does  not  present  a  character  more  ancient  than  that  of 
the  other  American  idioms. 

The  traditions,  the  monuments,  the  usages,  the  astronomical 
and  religious  systems,  as  the  comparison  of  many  idioms,  render 
more  than  probable  the  invasion  of  the  Asiatic  nations  into  the 
new  continent.  But  all  the  circumstances  concur  in  putting  back 

Suns.  They  looked  to  the  east  to  hail  the  rising  or  coming  of  the  sun.  The 
sun  was  the  source  of  everything, — their  supreme  god  ;  and  hence,  probably, 
as  the  sun  came  from  the  east,  as  they  imagined,  they  looked  to  the  east  as  the 
source  of  their  origin. 


CHAP.  XVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  179 

the  epoch  of  the  most  of  these  emigrations  in  the  darkness  of  ages 
anterior  to  history.* 

After  all  that  we  have  just  expressed,  we  believe  that  it  would 
be  superfluous  to  analyze  further  the  numerous  opinions  that  have 
been  hazarded  upon  the  migrations  of  antiquity  to  the  American 
continent.  The  common  resource  of  the  passage  of  the  ten  tribes 
of  Israel  led  captive  by  Salmanazar  has  been  employed  by  a  great 
number  of  writers.  The  magnificent  compilation  of  Lord  Kings- 
borough  will  be,  without  doubt,  the  best  and  most  durable  of  the 
monuments  raised  to  this  system.  We  would  not,  on  that  account, 
positively  deny  that  there  had  been  Israelites  in  America  before 
the  fifteenth  century  ;  we  are  clearly  persuaded  of  the  contrary. 
Only,  we  reject  every  system  which  has  for  its  object  to  make  of 
ancient  American  civilization  the  special  appurtenance  of  any  one 
nation  whatever,  African,  European,  or  Asiatic.  We  have  had  too 
often,  elsewhere,  the  opportunity  to  admire,  among  the  Indian 
populations  of  Mexico,  or  of  Central  America,  Jewish  or  Egyptian 
types  ;  more  than  once,  likewise,  we  have  observed,  in  these  coun- 
tries profiles  like  to  those  of  the  King  of  Judea  sculptured  among 
the  ruins  of  Karnac,  and  seen  Indians  in  their  haughty  nudity  re- 
sembling the  beautiful  Egyptian  statues  in  the  museum  of  the 
Louvre  or  of  Turin.  A  crowd  of  foreigners,  French,  Belgian,  Ger- 
man and  English,  have  remarked  with  as  much  surprise  as  we,  in 
certain  Guatemalian  villages,  the  Arab  costume  of  the  men,  and 
the  Jewish  costume  of  the  woman  of  Palin,  and  of  the  borders  of 
the  lake,  Amatitlan,  as  perfect,  and  as  beautiful,  as  in  the  pictures 
of  Horace  Vernet.f 

*  But  little  faith  is  to  be  placed  in  most  Indian  dates  and  traditions.  A  very 
old  Creek  chief  told  Bartram  that  his  nation  came  to  where  they  were  settled 
(Georgia)  when  Charleston,  South  Carolina  was  settled.  But  the  names  of  their 
towns  proved  that  they  were  there  in  1540. 

f  In  a  book  entitled  "Six  Months  in  Mexico,"  I  find  the  following  :  "  Down 
by  Cordoba  I  found  a  tribe  of  Indians  who  are  not  known  to  many  Mexicans 
excepting  those  in  their  vicinity  ;  they  are  called  Amatecos,  and  their  village, 
which  lies  three  miles  from  Cordoba,  is  called  Amatlan  ;  their  houses,  although 
small,  are  finer  and  handsomer  than  any  in  the  republic.  Flowers,  fruit  and 
vegetables  are  cultivated  by  them,  and  all  the  pineapples,  for  which  Cordoba  is 
famous,  come  from  their  plantations.  They  weave  their  own  clothing,  and 
have  their  own  priest,  church,  and  school.  Everything  is  a  model  of  cleanli- 
ness, and  throughout  the  entire  village  not  one  thing  can  be  found  out  of  place. 
The  women  are  about  the  medium  height,  with  slim  but  shapely  bodies  ;  their 
hands  and  feet  are  very  small,  and  their  faces  of  a  beautiful  Grecian  shape;  their 
eyes  are  magnificent,  and  their  hair  long  and  silky." 

The  men  are  large  and  strongly  built,  not  bad-featured.  They  wear  many 
chains,  ornaments,  bracelets  and  earrings.  They  are  always  spotlessly  clean. 


180  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVII. 

We  will  not  enter  any  further  into  the  system  of  Ordonez*  and 
of  Juarrosf  who  give  alike  the  Egyptians  and  the  Phcenicans  for 
the  ancestors  of  the  Toltecas  and  the  Mexicans,  as  also  for  the 
founders  of  Palenque.  These  systems  anciently  adopted  by 
Siguenza,  whose  manuscripts  we  have  seen  at  Mexico,  and  by 
other  writers,  do  not  rest  upon  very  positive  historical  data.  The 
passages  of  Diodorus  Siculus  and  of  Aristotle,  which  everybody 
knows,  on  the  subject  of  the  expeditions  of  the  Carthaginians, 
although  very  curious,  and  giving  an  appearance  of  foundation  to 
these  systems,  are  not  conclusive.  We  shall  not  then  here  reject 
the  possibility  of  the  voyages  of  the  ancients  to  America.  Hum- 
boldt  reports  on  this  subject  an  extremely  curious  passage  of  Plu- 
tarch ;  it  is  a  query,  in  terms  perfectly  clear  and  precise,  of  a  great 
transatlantic  continent,  and  of  a  mysterious  stranger,  arrived  from 
this  distant  country,  at  Carthage,  where  he  remained  several  years, 
about  two  or  three  years  before  the  vulgar  era.J 

If  we  study  the  condition  of  the  aborigines  of  the  New  World 
at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  we  recognize  that  all  this  vast 
extent  from  the  extremity  of  one  pole  to  the  other  was  irregularly 
divided  between  two  families  entirely  different ;  one  composed  of 
a  multitude  of  wandering  tribes,  living,  in  a  savage  state,  on  the 
spontaneous  productions  of  the  earth  ;  the  other  organized  into 
natural  communities,  given  to  agriculture,  having  regular  forms 
of  government  and  religious  systems  based  upon  a  powerful  hie- 
rarchy— finally  comparable  by  their  civilization  to  the  ancient  em- 
pires of  Asia.  The  civilized  races  of  America  could  not  have 
known  but  very  imperfectly  their  mutual  existence,  and  doubtless 
had  but  very  indirect  relations  with  the  savage  tribes  that  sur- 
rounded them.  But  all  had  among  them  particular  traits  of  re- 
semblance which  perfectly  distinguished  them  from  the  people  of 
the  Old  World.  It  was  a  temperament  and  physical  constitution 
common ;  usages  and  institutions  analogous ;  constructions  in 
their  language  and  grammatical  forms  very  nearly  identical — very 
different  from  those  of  our  continent. 

They  are  industrious  and  rich.  They  never  leave  their  homes  but  once  a 
week,  when  they  bring  their  marketing  and  sell  it  to  the  Indians  of  Cordoba. 
Their  language,  is  different  from  all  the  others,  but  they  also  speak  the  Spanish. 
The  women  are  sweet  and  innocent,  and  undoubtedly  the  handsomest  and  cleanest 
people  in  the  republic. 

*  "Ordonez  and  Aquiar.  History  of  Heaven  and  Earth,"  etc.  MS.  of  the 
Museum  of  Mexico. 

t  "  Compendium  of  the  History  of  Guatemala,"  etc.,  1810,  Guatemala. 

J  "  Humboldt,  Examen  critique  de  la  geographic  du  noveau  continent,  torn  1, 
p.  191,  Paris." 


CHAP.  XVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  181 

At  the  time  of  the  discovery,  the  aborigines  of  America  could 
have  been  divided  into  three  classes:  the  agricultural  natives,  prop- 
erly so-called ;  the  savages,  living  only  on  the  products  of  their 
hunting  or  their  fishing ;  and  finally  the  tribes  which  had  some 
partial  notions  of  agriculture. 

All  the  nutritive  plants  cultivated  in  our  hemisphere  and  des- 
ignated under  the  common  appellation  of  cereals,  the  millet,  the 
rice,  wheat,  rye,  barley,  and  oats,  were  absolutely  unknown  to  the 
western  continent  before  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans.  Mais 
(corn)  which  was  the  principal  and  almost  the  only  foundation  of 
American  agriculture,  is  absolutely  of  American  origin.* 

If  we  judge  of  it  (agriculture)  from  the  historical  traditions  of 
the  Guatemalan  population,  the  data  which  we  possess  relative  to 
the  Indians  of  the  United  States,  from  the  known  habitudes  of 
some  tribes  of  the  northeast  of  Asia,  and  from  the  annals  even  of 
the  people  of  the  old  continent,  where  we  find  slavery  over  the 
social  body,  we  will  be  inclined  to  believe  that  violence  alone  has 
been  capable  of  working  such  a  change  in  the  manners  of  the  In- 
dian hunter.  Slavery,  which,  according  to  all  probability,  is  the 
result  of  conquest,  must  have  been  of  great  efficacy  in  the  trans- 
mutation of  savages  into  agricultural  nations.  Inequality  of  con- 
dition was  the  necessary  consequence  of  it.  To  this  first  element 
another  was  gradually  united,  which  appears  to  have  been  the  dis- 
tinctive sign  of  the  social  state.  The  religious  sentiment,  the 
natural  consequence  of  the  belief  in  a  Supreme  Being,  is  a  senti- 
ment everywhere  deeply  graven  in  the  human  heart.  Diviners 
are  found  among  savages,  as  among  civilized  peoples,  and  conse- 
quently ambitious  men  who  know  how  to  make  use  of  superstition  to 
govern  the  multitude.  It  is  estimated  that  at  the  time  of  the  dis- 
covery of  America  the  nations  of  Mexico  and  Peru  were  under  the 
yoke  of  a  military  and  religious  despotism,  perfectly  regulated. 

*  The  divers  species  of  kidney  beans,  called  by  the  Spaniards  frijoles,  and 
which  are  now  one  of  the  bases  of  the  nourishment  of  the  Indians  of  Mexico,  of 
Central  America,  and  of  Peru,  are  indigenous  to  America,  as  well  as  a  certain 
class  of  pumpkins  (courges).  The  potato,  called  papa,  and  many  other  analogous 
species  of  roots,  such  as  the  camote  and  the  yucca,  all  unknown  to  Europe  except- 
ing the  first,  belong  exclusively  to  the  new  continent.  I  shall  not  speak  of  a 
great  variety  of  other  roots  or  indigenous  vegetables,  of  which  I  have  often  had 
made  excellent  juliennes  in  my  solitude  at  Vera  Cruz,  but  I  shall  remark  that  Dr. 
Hernandez,  in  his  "  Natural  History  of  Mexico,"  describes  a  species  of  wheat, 
which  is  found  in  Michoacan,  of  a  prodigious  fecundity.  They  give  to  it  the 
name  of  huauhtli,  which  the  Spaniards  of  the  continent  translated  by  "bledos." 
This  wheat  was  not  to  the  taste  of  the  Mexicans,  who  preferred  to  it  mais,  as 
they  still  prefer  it  to  the  wheat  of  Europe. 


182  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVII. 

The  transformation  of  a  savage  tribe  into  an  agricultural  people  at 
once  operated  the  transmutation  of  absolute  individual  indepen- 
dence into  a  despotism  of  that  kind  which  cannot  be  of  long  du- 
ration ;*  but  the  progress  in  the  arts  and  in  the  acquisition  of 
divers  sciences  being  often  arrested  in  their  progress  by  the  civil 
and  religious  institutions  adopted  anteriorly,  could  not,  on  the 
contrary,  but  be  slow  and  gradual. 

In  recognizing  the  necessity  of  violence  and  conquest  in  order 
to  make  a  horde  of  savages  a  civilized  nation,  we  cannot  conclude 
that  such  a  change  could  be  the  work  of  a  few  isolated  emigrants. 
We  know,  however,  that  the  foreign  emigrations  to  America  were 
rarely  composed  of  a  great  number  of  men.  We  must  therefore 
admit,  and  it  is  the  only  hypothesis  which  agrees  with  the  ensemble 
of  American  traditions,  that  this  social  revolution  was  in  great  part 
the  effect  of  persuasion  ;  that  the  barbarians  of  the  New  World 
were  indebted  for  it  to  a  few  extraordinary  personages,  priests  or 
legislators  arrived  from  distant  countries  to  spread  among  them 
their  dogmas  and  their  laws. 

The  origin  of  the  civilized  nations  of  America,  as  that  of  the' 
peoples  of  the  ancient  continent,  is  essentially  united  to  the  mytho- 
logical traditions  that  envelop  their  infancy,  but  under  these  po- 
etical veils  are  concealed  the  religious  principles  of  the  first  ages, 
and  the  chaos  of  an  existence  anterior  to  historic  times  and  the 
formation  of  societies.  Notwithstanding  the  relative  resemblance 
which  exists  between  so  many  different  traditions,  each  one  never- 
theless has  its  own  character  according  to  the  diversity  of  the  cli- 
mates where  it  took  its  birth,  or  the  genius  of  the  men  to  whom  it 
owed  its  existence. 

The  primitive  civilization  of  North  America  appears  to  have  ex- 
tended its  benefits,  in  the  first  times  of  its  existence,  to  divers 
countries  now  known  under  the  names  of  the  States  of  Tabasco, 
Chiapas,  Oaxaca,  and  Yucatan,  as  well  as  to  the  actual  republics 
of  Gautemala,  San  Salvador,  and  Honduras.  The  multitude  and 
variety  of  the  ruins  which  are  met  with  in  these  diverse  countries, 
joined  to  the  study  of  the  traditions  which  are  attached  to  their 
past,  have  inspired  the  thought  of  seeking  the  first  traces  of  these 
ancient  nations,  which  rivalled,  by  their  culture  and  their  polite- 
ness, the  kingdoms  of  ancient  Asia. 

According  to  the  account  of  the  ancient  Tzendales  traditions, 
the  borders  of  the  Tabasco  and  the  Uzumacinta  must  have  been 

*  "  Which  cannot  be  of  long  duration.'1  All  history  refutes  this.  The  Abbe  ap- 
pears to  have  felt  more  than  he  dared  to  express,  and  even  to  have  been  cautious 
of  what  he  did  express. 


CHAP.  XVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  183 

witnesses,  many  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  of  the  marvels 
worked  by  Votan,  the  most  ancient  of  American  legislators. 
The  Uzumacinta,  as  well  as  the  Tabasco,  is  rapid  until  the  mo- 
ment of  arriving  in  the  plain  ;  it  rolls  its  waves  sometimes  be- 
tween two  walls  of  volcanic  rocks  like  to  gigantic  natural  fortifica- 
tions :  sometimes  in  a  narrow  profound  valley  shaded  by  vener- 
able forests,  beneath  which  are  concealed  the  debris  of  cities  built 
by  populations,  now  lost,  of  the  western  continent.  Magnificent 
forests  of  a  wonderful  variety  of  trees,  and  foliage  as  vigorous  as 
the  day  which  saw  the  primitive  civilizers  land,  have  resumed  the 
place  which  the  latter  had  taken  from  them,  and  for  ages  bathed 
again  their  shadows  in  its  rapid  waves.  A  short  distance  behind 
these  forests  luxuriant  savannas,  displaying  all  the  beauties  of  the 
tropical  flora,  lose  themselves  on  one  side  in  the  State  of  Yucatan, 
and  on  the  other  in  that  of  Chiapas. 

The  town  of  Chiapas,  the  first  which  it  is  said  that  has  been 
built  upon  North  American  soil,  rises  upon  the  slope  of  a  hill  at 
the  entrance  to  the  steep  mountains  of  Tumbala,  which  in  grave 
and  unforeseen  circumstances  could  afford  the  safest  retreat. 

According  to  the  traditions  collected  among  the  Tzendales,  it  is 
in  these  places  that  Votan  will  appear,  accompanied  by  those  whom 
Providence  destined  to  be,  under  his  lead,  the  founders  of  Ameri- 
can civilization.  Votan,  it  is  said,  was  the  first  man  that  God  sent 
to  divide  and  share  the  lands  of  America.  This  sharing  indicates 
either  a  conquest  or  a  colonization  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  under 
these  two  points  of  view  it  must  be  considered,  the  division  of  the 
soil  being  one  of  the  first  conditions  of  ownership,  and,  conse- 
quently, of  civilization.  Votan,  therefore,  did  not  come  to  people  the 
American  continent.  We  cannot  say  to  what  degree  of  barbarism 
this  population  had  descended  before  the  arrival  of  Votan.  What 
appears  certain  is,  that,  in  a  considerable  portion  of  the  countries 
which  extend  between  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  and  the  territories 
of  California,  men  lived  in  a  condition  analogous  to  that  of  the 
savage  tribes  of  the  north. 

It  is  doubtful,  however,  that  all  the  American  tribes  had  fallen 
into  this  state  of  degradation.  Ruins  of  colossal  proportions, 
analogous  to  the  cyclopean  edifices  which  are  found  in  many 
parts  of  the  Old  World,  are  met  with  here  and  there  in  the  West- 
ern Continent.  They  are  masses  of  rough  stones,  of  a  prodigious 
size,  irregularly  placed,  without  cement,  one  upon  the  other,  but 
joined  in  a  manner  to  form  together  gigantic  walls.  No  souvenir, 
no  tradition,  recalls  now  to  what  peoples  these  monuments  owe 
their  existence.  We  can  but  attribute  them  to  some  warlike  race, 


184  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

superior  to  the  savage  populations  which  they  say  had  been  at- 
tracted to  civilization  by  Votan.  Perhaps  that  race  was  cotempo- 
raneous  with  this  legislator  by  whom  it  had  been  conquered  or 
driven  back  into  the  interior  of  the  mountains,  where  we  have 
contemplated  these  imposing  remains  of  their  power.* 

The  difficulties  which  envelop  the  history  of  Votan  prevents 
making  known  in  a  satisfactory  manner  this  mysterious  personage. 
We  cannot,  however,  refuse  to  admit  the  reality  of  his  existence, 
but  the  double  aspect  under  which  tradition  presents  him  causes 
a  doubt  sometimes  if  there  were  not  several  Votans,  or  if  this  cele- 
brated name  has  not  been  attributed  as  a  title  of  glory  to  other 
men  arrived  after  him,  and  equally  worthy  of  public  gratitude. 
The  analogy  which  is  found  in  the  Tzendales  traditions,  Quiches 
and  Mexicans,  between  the  personages  under  the  divers  names  of 
Votan,  Gucumatz,  Cukulcan,  and  Quetzalcohuatlf  causes  us  to 
believe  that  at  the  origin  of  history  a  single  individual  must  have 
united  this  diversity  of  appellations.  The  comparison  of  all  the 
traditions  decides  us,  however,  to  admit  two  of  them,  Votan  and 
Quetzalcohuatl,  the  names  of  Gucumatz  Cukulcan  being  identi- 
cally the  same  signification  as  the  latter.  However  it  may  be, 
it  is  certain  that  it  was  from  them,  heroes,  priests,  legisla- 
tors, or  warriors,  that  Central  America  received  the  elements  of 
that  civilization  which  their  successors  carried  afterwards  to  so 
high  a  degree. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

The  North  American  Indian,  by  Ulloa,  Croghan,  Carver — The  Opinions  of 
Father  Gregorio  Garcia — Father  Joseph  de  Acosta — John  de  Laet — Eman- 
uel  de  Moraez — George  de  Huron  and  Pierre  de  Charlevoix — Method  to 
Discover  the  Earliest  and  the  Latest  Emigrants. 

A  NATURAL  curiosity  leads  us  to  know,  above  all  things,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  different  countries  of  the  earth,  their  customs, 

*  "  The  cyclopean  ruins  which  we  have  seen  are  about  eight  leagues  to  the 
north  of  Guatemala,  upon  the  high  mountains  which  command  the  approaches 
from  Montagua,  on  the  lands  of  the  hacienda  of  Carrijal.  These  ruins  occupy 
a  considerable  extent." 

t  Ouc  or  cue,  in  the  Quechee  language,  is  the  same  bird  that  the  Mexicans  call 
Quetzal.  Cumalz  signifies  serpent,  as  does  the  Mexican  word  cohuati.  In  the 
Maya  language  of  Yucatan  there  is  likewise  discovered  the  same  sense  in  the 
word  cukulcan ;  all  three  signify  a  feathered  serpent,  or  covered  with  feathers, 
or  rather  a  serpent  adorned  with  the  feathers  of  guetzal.  It  is  very  remarkable 
how  the  serpent,  the  most  loathed  and  dreaded  of  all  reptiles,  enters  into  al- 
most all  religions — even  the  Christian. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  185 

usages  and  inclinations.  This  desire  doubtless  comes  from  all 
men  having  the  same  origin.  It  appears  to  them  very  extraordi- 
nary that  there  is  so  great  a  difference  of  living,  of  thinking,  of  all 
these  nations.  In  fact,  we  can  hardly  convince  ourselves  at  first 
sight  that  they  all  have  the  same  origin.  When  we  reflect  upon 
this  difference,  it  is  even  so  great  in  many  nations  that  it  seems  to 
make  of  them  a  species  of  men  that  have  never  had  anything  in 
common  origin.  The  complexion,  the  features  of  the  countenance, 
the  form  of  the  body,  and,  above  all,  their  manners,  their  kind  of 
life,  their  habits,  have  shown  everywhere  astonishing  varieties. 
We  can,  however,  reduce  these  varieties  to  three  principal  ones  in 
regard  to  complexion.  There  are  white  men,  black  men,  and  red- 
dish men.  But  these  colors  are  each  subdivided  into  almost  as 
many  different  shades  as  there  are  regions,  states,  and  provinces 
on  the  globe.  There  is  remarked  between  the  white  and  black 
all  the  opposite  shades  which  can  be  imagined  from  one  extreme 
to  the  other,  so  that  in  taking  these  two  extremes  it  might  be  said 
that  the  difference  is  as  day  to  night.  The  red  tint  in  the  middle 
between  these  two  colors  differs  as  much  from  the  one  as  from  the 
other;  it  is  the  color  of  the  Indians.  Although  these  men  attach 
not  any  advantage  to  it,  they  call  themselves,  towards  the  north, 
red-men,  to  distinguish  themselves  from  the  other  two  species. 
They  have  sought  the  cause  of  these  colors,  and  have  claimed  to 
have  ascertained  it.  But  very  far  from  having  found  it,  they  have 
produced  nothing  but  what  was  illusory  in  this  respect.  The  same 
arguments  that  are  advanced  to  prove  it  refute  themselves;  but 
besides  that,  the  cold  and  heat  of  climates  are  not  sufficient  rea- 
sons for  it.  They  do  not  any  more  explain  in  a  satisfactory  man- 
ner the  diversity  of  the  construction  and  of  the  features,  for  there 
is  noticed  in  this  respect  as  many  varieties  as  in  the  colors  of  the 
skin. 

The  Indians  have  naturally  a  color  inclined  to  red,  but  being 
very  often  exposed  to  the  sun  and  to  the  wind,  this  color  becomes 
dark.  Now,  it  is  settled  that  neither  cold  nor  heat  produces,  in 
this  respect,  any  sensible  variation ;  it  is  wherefore  the  Indians  of 
the  high  parts  of  Peru  are  confounded  with  those  of  the  lower 
parts.  They  are  also  mistaken  in  regard  to  the  color  of  those  who 
inhabit  the  countries  called  the  Vallies,  in  confounding  them  with 
those  of  other  countries  warmer.  And  it  is  the  same  with  regard 
to  those  who  inhabit  the  southern  part,  from  the  fortieth  degree, 
towards  the  south,  and  of  those  of  the  northern  part  from  the 
fiftieth  degree  and  beyond,  towards  the  north ;  for  they  cannot, 
by  the  color,  distinguish  the  latter  from  those  Indians  who  are 


186  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XVIII. 

towards  the  Equator.  In  general  it  is  very  difficult  to  decide 
from  what  part  are  any  of  these  Indians  when  they  are  found 
together.  Their  natural  color  receives  from  the  rays  of  the  sun, 
from  the  cold,  and  the  air,  a  tint  which  renders  it  of  a  dim  red. 

There  are  less  differences  observed  among  the  Indian  races  than 
among  the  others  ;  as,  for  example,  among  the  Negroes  some  have 
the  nose  flat,  the  tunicle  of  the  eye  thick,  the  lips  prominent  and 
large,  and  wool  for  hair.  There  are  others  of  them,  also  black, 
but  their  face  is  modelled  as  that  of  the  whites,  especially  in  regard 
to  the  mouth,  the  nose,  the  eyes ;  they  have  straight  hair,  although 
very  thick.  There  are  also  some  of  them  of  a  reddish,  and  of  an- 
other red  shade  much  brighter,  inclined  to  th e  color  of  the  Mulattoes. 

As  to  the  Indians,  their  color  scarcely  varies  at  all,  notwith- 
standing the  difference  observed  in  the  form  and  the  features  of 
their  faces ;  a  difference  very  perceptible,  and  which  seems  to  dis- 
tinguish their  race,  is  a  very  small  forehead,  small  eyes,  nose 
pointed,  thin,  curved  over  to  the  upper  lip,  the  face  broad,  the 
ears  large,  the  hair  black,  straight,  thick;*  very  muscular  and 
robust;  the  face  without  beard,  unless  they  are  old,  then  they 
have  a  little  of  it,  but  never  on  the  cheeks.  Although  this  gen- 
eral form  varies,  the  individuals  preserve,  however,  a  bearing  of 
the  race,  which  hinders  confounding  them  with  Mulattoes,  who 
are  like  them  to  a  certain  degree  by  their  color. 

When  one  has  seen  an  Indian,  of  whatever  country  he  may  be,  he  can  say 
that  he  has  seen  them  all,  as  to  color  and  external  structure.  But  it  is  not 
the  same  as  regards  stature ;  they  vary  according  to  the  countries. 
Those  of  the  high  countries  of  Peru  are  of  medium  height ;  they 
are  found  a  little  larger  in  the  low  country,  although  but  a  trifle. 
But  those  who  inhabit  the  southern  parts,  from  the  thirty-sixth 
degree  to  the  south,  the  Keys  of  .Florida,  the  northern  part,  from 
the  thirtieth  degree  to  the  north ;  finally,  those  that  are  known 
along  the  Mississippi,  in  Canada,  and  towards  the  part  of  New 
Spain,  are  tall  and  well  formed.  Now  we  can  attribute  this  dif- 
ference neither  to  the  cold  nor  to  the  heat,  since  they  experience 
in  Peru  the  two  extremes  of  these  temperatures  in  the  same  degree 
as  in  climates  farthest  from  or  nearest  to  the  Equator. 

The  resemblances  are  still  more  perceptible  as  to  usages,  cus- 
toms, character,  genius,  dispositions,  and  other  peculiarities ;  for 
there  is  noticed  in  all  as  great  a  resemblance  as  if  the  countries 
the  most  distant  formed  but  one.f 

*  This  word  thick  should  probably  be  coarse. 

f  "Memoires  Philosophiques,"  etc.  Par  Don  Ulloa,  de  la  Socie"t£  Boyale 
de  Londres,  etc.,  etc. 


CHAP.  XVIIT.J  6F    AMERICA.  187 

Humboldt,  from  his  extensive  travels  in  America,  his  inter- 
course with  the  natives,  was  well  qualified  to  form  a  correct 
opinion  of  the  Indian  race.  He  says :  "  Notwithstanding  the  close 
ties  which  seem  to  unite  all  the  people  of  America  as  belonging 
to  one  and  the  same  race,  many  tribes  among  them  differ  not  less 
in  the  height  of  their  stature,  by  their  tint — more  or  less  tawny — 
by  a  look  which  expresses  among  some  peace  and  gentleness, 
among  others  a  sinister  mixture  of  sadness  and  ferocity." 

Colonel  Croghan  was  for  a  long  time  employed  by  the  English 
Government  in  what  was  then  called  the  Indian  Department.  Few 
men  have  better  known  the  native  nations,  and  have  been  better 
loved  and  esteemed  by  them ;  few  persons  have  made  more  efforts 
to  engage  them  to  cultivate  the  earth,  and  to  show  them  the  dan- 
gers of  drunkenness. 

"  What  a  vast  field  does  not  the  old  and  new  inhabitants  of 
America  present  for  meditation !"  remarks  Colonel  Croghan.  "  Very 
different  from  European  nations,  where  complexion,  and  often 
even  features,  change  with  the  latitude.  We  observe  an  invariable 
uniformity  among  those  whom  we  meet  from  the  burning  shores 
of  the  Mississippi,  under  the  30th  degree  of  latitude,  to  the  foggy 
regions  of  the  Saguenay,*  under  the  50th  degree ;  the  Mastassing 
and  the  Missisage  of  the  north  resemble  the  Muscogulge  (Creeks), 
the  Choctaw  of  Florida,  and  the  Arkansa  of  the  south :  all  have 
black,  coarse  hair,  all  the  same  mould  of  physiognomy,  the  skin 
copper  colored,  and  the  white  of  the  eyes  mingled  with  yellow. 
Does  not  this  analogy  appear  to  indicate  that  these  nations  de- 
scended from  the  same  stock  and  are  not  of  a  high  antiquity,  since 
the  difference  of  climate  has  not  produced  any  in  the  shades  of 
their  complexion  ?  On  the  other  hand,  that  which  we  remark 
between  the  languages  which  the  nations  of  the  south,  of  the  west, 
and  of  the  north,  is  so  great  that  such  an  opinion  seems  inadmis- 
sible.f 

Several  confederations  existed  when  the  continent  was  discov- 

*  Saguenay  :  a  considerable  river  of  Lower  Canada,  whose  confluence  with  the 
St.  Lawrence,  at  150  miles  below  Quebec,  is  known  under  the  name  of  Tadoussac. 
This  river  issues  from  the  little  lake  Mastassing. 

|  There  are  four  rivers  named  Miami,  viz.:  the  Miami  of  the  Lakes  (the 
Maume),  the  Big  and  Little  Miami  of  Ohio,  and  the  Miami  of  Florida,  which 
discharges  itself  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Peninsula.  The  Tuscarawas, 
of  North  Carolina,  appear  to  have  been  related  to  the  Senecas,  of  New  York. 
When  the  former  were  defeated  by  the  whites  they  would  not  live  in  subjection 
to  them,  and  removed  to  the  "  Five  Nations,"  where  the  Senecas  assigned  them 
lands,  and  they  became  the  "Sixth  Nation." — See  Williams's  History  of  North 
Carolina. 


188  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XVIII. 

ered ;  the  best  known  were  those  of  the  Creeks  (Muscogulges)  in 
the  two  Floridas  and  Georgia;  of  the  Powhatans  in  Virginia;  of 
the  Whelenys  or  Illinois  in  upper  Louisiana ;  of  the  Lenapys  in 
lower  Pennsylvania  and  Jersey  ;  of  the  Mohawks  in  the  State  of 
New  York.  The  first  is  the  only  one  which  has  maintained  itself; 
of  the  Illinois,  there  remain  but  a  few  families,  which  dwell  on 
the  borders  of  the  river  of  that  name ;  there  is  not  found  a  single 
Powhatan  in  all  Virginia,  nor  a  single  Lenapy  in  the  country 
which  this  tribe  inhabited.  Of  the  last,  there  exist  only  the 
Oneida  nations  and  some  remains  of  the  Cayugas,  Senecas,  and 
Tuscarawas,  the  Mohawks  having  been  obliged  to  move  into  Can- 
ada, where  their  numbers  have  been  considerably  diminished 
within  a  few  years. 

The  nations  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  of  the  Ohio,  although  a 
little  more  cultivated,  and  inhabiting  one  of  the  most  fertile  re- 
gions of  this  continent,  become  our  tributaries  by  the  need  which 
they  have  of  European  merchandise ;  exposed  as  the  others  to  the 
ravages  of  the  small-pox,  and  the  abuse  of  spirituous  liquors, 
march  also  with  astonishing  rapidity  to  annihilation  ;  it  seems 
they  are  destined  to  disappear  before  the  ascendancy  of  the 
whites.  Yet  a  few  lustres,  and  there  will  not  remain  any  trace 
of  their  passage  over  the  earth  but  the  names  formerly  given  by 
their  ancestors  to  rivers,  mountains  and  lakes  of  their  country." 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  proper  to  remark  that  these  great 
confederacies  do  not  appear  to  have  existed  in  1540,  though  at  that 
time  there  existed  the  Alabamas,  the  Chickasaws,  the  Chocchu- 
mas,  and  several  other  nations  mentioned  by  the  historians  of  De 
Soto's  expeditions  into  Florida.  But  the  Natches  claim  that  their 
kingdom  at  one  time  extended  from  the  Bayou  Manchac  to  the 
Ohio,  and  it  is  stated  in  some  of  the  accounts  of  this  nation  that 
mounds  of  earth  were  raised  over  its  princes  the  sizes  of  which 
were  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the  person  over  whose 
remains  they  were  raised. 

"  Since  the  one  hundred  and  sixty-six  years  that  we  have  known 
them,"  continued  Croghan,  "  have  we  ever  seen  among  them  a 
single  individual  who  has  shown  any  spark  of  the  celestial  fire 
whence  spring  useful  ideas  and  grand  conceptions  ?  No ;  their 
commerce  with  us,  in  causing  to  cease  their  wars,  their  vengeance 
and  their  cannibalism,  has  not  communicated  to  them  new  tastes; 
they  feel  not  even  now  the  necessity  and  the  advantages  which 
result  from  the  exclusive  possession  and  the  cultivation  of  a  field; 
they  know  not,  as  we,  the  pleasure  of  planting  a  tree,  and  that 
still  more  agreeable  of  seeing  it  loaded  with  fruits  and  flowers ; 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  189 

nor,  finally,  that  attachment,  instinctive  among  all  men,  for  the 
place  of  their  birth ;  like  to  wild  beasts,  they  quit  it  without  re- 
gret to  go  elsewhere  and  erect  their  wigwams. 

On  the  other  hand,  how  can  we  call  them  barbarians,  after 
having  observed  the  invariable  kindness  of  their  domestic  man- 
ners ;  that  tranquility  of  mind ;  that  disinterestedness ;  that 
constant  disposition  to  assist  one  another  in  their  needs  and  in 
their  distress  (for  among  themselves'  they  are  really  brothers) ; 
the  tenderness  with  which  they  raise  their  children ;  the  regrets 
and  the  tears  which  they  shed  when  they  lose  them ;  their  respect 
for  old  age  as  well  as  for  the  memory  and  ashes  of  their  ancestors; 
their  attachment  to  their  tribe  and  their  nation  ;  the  heroic  cour- 
age with  which  they  endure  hunger,  sickness,  sufferance  and 
death  ?  I  know  not  a  surer  and  more  faithful  friend.  If  some- 
times we  observe  among  them  traits  of  bad  faith,  it  is  from  us 
that  they  have  learned  lying  and  duplicity.  Viewed  in  this  re- 
spect, who  does  not  regret  to  see  their  numbers  daily  diminish  ? 

But  then  how  reconcile  the  ideas  which  spring  from  the  con- 
sideration of  manners  so  gentle,  with  those  which  produce  their 
ferocity  in  war  and  towards  their  prisoners  ?  This  astonishing 
contradiction  is  equally  striking  among  all  the  nations  that  I  know 
from  the  Mississippi  to  the  north  of  Lake  Ontario ;  all  have  the 
same  physiognomy,  the  same  opinions,  the  same  usages.  There 
is  also  seen  among  these  nations  the  same  degree  of  indolence 
which  prevents  them  from  working,  and  inspires  them  with  the 
most  profound  contempt  for  husbandry.  The  same  impatience 
which  causes  them  to  disdain  the  repose  of  a  sedentary  and  quiet 
life  draws  them  to  chases  the  most  distant  and  fatiguing,  as  well 
as  to  war.  All  bear  on  their  physiognomy  the  imprint  of  a  mind 
void,  or  inclined  to  sadness,  and  yet  they  know  not  melancholy  ; 
all  have  the  same  indifference  and  improvidence  for  the  future, 
and  in  spite  of  the  experience  of  annual  indigence,  to  which  their 
unlucky  disposition  exposes  them,  they  become  neither  wiser  nor 
more  provident  from  it. 

Their  women,  less  robust  and  less  cruel  than  the  men,  are  all 
subject  to  a  hard  and  often  painful  life.  They  plant  the  corn,  the 
potatoes,  the  tobacco,  smoke  the  meat,  carry  the  burdens,  and 
often  accompany  their  husbands  to  the  great  winter  hunts,  as  well 
as  to  war.  They  nevertheless  have  a  great  influence  in  nearly  all 
the  national  deliberations  (although  they  are  not  allowed  to  speak 
in  them),  and  also  in  the  adoption  of  prisoners. 

The  bodies  of  the  Indians,  almost  continually  exposed  to  the  in- 
clemency of  the  weather,  are  much  less  susceptible  to  the  effects 


190  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

of  the  variation  of  the  atmosphere  and  the  change  of  seasons  than 
ours.  One  day,  when  it  froze  very  hard,  I  said  to  a  Pottawattamy, 
almost  naked,  '  Art  thou  not  cold  ?'  '  Is  thy  face  cold  ?'  he 
proudly  replied  to  me.  I  said  to  him,  '  No ;  my  face  is  accus- 
tomed to  the  wind  and  the  cold.'  'Ah,  well,'  he  replied,  'my 
hody  is  all  face !'  Healthy  and  vigorous,  though  less  capable  of 
supporting  labors  of  cultivation  than  we,  those  who  escape  the 
dangers  of  the  small-pox  and  the  abuse  of  spirituous  liquors  ar- 
rive at  an  advanced  age  almost  without  any  infirmities." 

Flint,  in  his  "Recollections,"  bears  testimony  to  "the  regrets 
and  tears  which  they  shed  when  they  lose  their  children,  and  to 
their  respect  for  the  memory  and  ashes  of  their  ancestors."  He 
says  :  "  I  once  witnessed  a  spectacle  which  I  am  told  the  Indians 
are  rather  shy  of  exhibiting  to  strangers,  not  only  among  the 
whites,  but  even  of  their  own  race.  This  was  a  set  mourning  for 
a  deceased  relative.  It  took  place  in  a  Choctaw  family,  on  the 
north  side  of  Lake  Pontchartrain.  About  two  months  before,  they 
had  appointed  this  day  for  doing  up  the  mourning  at  once.  The 
whole  group  consisted  of  nine  persons,  male  and  female.  Only 
four  men  enacted  the  mourning.  I  was  walking  near  the  place 
with  my  family.  Our  attention  was  arrested  by  the  peculiar  posi- 
tion of  the  mourners,  and  by  a  monotonous  and  most  melancholy 
lament,  in  a  kind  of  tone  not  unlike  the  howling  of  a  dog.  We 
walked  up  to  the  mourning,  but  it  went  on  as  if  the  parties  were 
unobservant  of  our  presence.  Four  large  men  sat  opposite,  and 
their  heads  so  inclined  to  each  other  as  almost  to  touch.  A 
blanket  was  thrown  over  their  heads ;  each  had  a  corner  of  it  in 
his  hand.  In  this  position  one,  who  appeared  to  lead  in  the  busi- 
ness, would  begin  the  dolorous  note,  which  the  rest  immediately 
followed  in  a  prolonged  and  dismal  strain  for  more  than  half  a 
minute.  It  then  sank  away.  It  was  followed  by  a  few  convul- 
sive sobs  or  snuffles,  only  giving  way  to  the  same  dismal  howls 
again.  This  was  said  to  be  a  common  ceremony  in  like  cases,  and 
this  was  a  preconcerted  duty  which  they  had  met  at  this  time  and 
place  to  discharge.  The  mourning  lasted  something  more  than 
an  hour.  The  squaw  and  sisters  of  the  deceased  were  walking 
about  with  unconcern,  and  as  though  nothing  more  than  ordinary 
was  transacting.  To  be  able  to  judge  of  the  sincerity  with  which 
these  mourners  enacted  their  business,  and  to  satisfy  myself 
whether  they  were  in  earnest  or  in  jest,  I  sat  down  close  by  them, 
so  that  I  could  look  under  their  blankets,  and  I  saw  the  tears 
actually  streaming  down  their  cheeks  in  good  earnest.  When  the 
mourning  was  over  they  arose,  assumed  their  usual  countenance, 
and  went  about  their  ordinary  business." 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  OP   AMERICA.  191 

Such  were,  in  general,  the  inhabitants  of  this  hemisphere  when 
first  discovered  by  Europeans,  but  the  Peruvians  and  the  Mexi- 
cans were  in  the  infancy  of  civilization,  just  emerging  from  the 
gross  barbarism  that  characterized  the  others. 

This  ceremony  of  mourning  was  one  of  the  religious  rites  of  the 
Peruvians.  At  a  certain  festival  of  the  year  they  visited  the 
tombs  of  the  dead  to  mourn  over  them. 

Most  of  the  historians  or  travellers  that  have  treated  on  the 
American  Aborigines  disagree  in  their  sentiments  in  regard  to 
them. 

Two  Spaniards,  the  one  Father  Gregorio  Garcia,  the  other  Father 
Joseph  de  Acosta,  have  written  on  the  origin  of  the  American 
Indians.  The  former,  who  had  been  employed  in  the  missions  of 
Mexico  and  Peru,  endeavored  to  prove  from  the  traditions  of  the 
Mexicans,  Peruvians  and  others,  which  he  received  on  the  spot,  and 
from  the  variety  of  customs,  languages,  and  religions  observable 
in  the  different  countries  of  the  New  World,  that  different  nations 
had  contributed  to  the  peopling  of  it.  The  latter,  Father  De  Acosta, 
in  his  examination  of  the  means  by  which  the  first  Indians  of 
America  might  have  found  a  passage  to  that  continent,  discredits 
the  conclusions  of  those  who  believed  it  to  be  by  sea,  because  no 
ancient  author  has  made  mention  of  the  compass ;  and  concludes 
that  it  must  be  either  by  the  north  of  Asia  and  Europe,  which  ad- 
join to  each  other,  or  by  those  regions  which  lie  to  the  southward 
of  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  He  also  rejects  the  assertions  of  such 
as  have  advanced  that  it  was  peopled  by  the  Hebrews. 

John  de  Laet,  a  Flemish  writer,  has  controverted  the  opinion  of 
these  Spanish  fathers,  and  of  many  others  who  have  written  on 
the  same  subject.  The  hypothesis  he  endeavors  to  establish  is, 
that  America  was  certainly  peopled  by  the  Scythians  or  Tartars ; 
and  that  the  transmigration  of  these  people  happened  soon  after 
the  dispersion  of  Noah's  grandsons.  He  undertakes  to  show  that 
the  most  northern  Americans  have  a  greater  resemblance,  not  only 
in  the  features  of  their  countenance,  but  also  in  their  complexion 
and  manner  of  living,  to  the  Scythians,  Tartars  and  Samoides, 
than  any  other  nations. 

In  answer  to  Grotius,  who  had  asserted  that  some  of  the  Nor- 
wegians passed  into  America  by  the  way  of  Greenland,  and  over  a 
vast  continent,  he  says  that  it  is  well  known  that  Greenland  was 
not  discovered  till  the  year  964,  and  both  Gomera  and  Herrera  in- 
form us  that  the  Chichimeques  were  settled  on  the  Lake  of  Mexico 
in  721.  He  adds  that  these  savages,  according  to  the  uniform  tra- 
dition of  the  Mexicans  who  disposessed  them,  came  from  the 


192  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

country  since  called  New  Mexico,  and  from  the  neighborhood  of 
California  ;  consequently  North  America  must  have  been  inhabited 
many  ages  before  it  could  receive  any  inhabitants  from  Norway  by 
way  of  Greenland,  etc. 

The  Flemish  author  then  returns  to  the  Scythians,  between 
whom  and  the  Americans  he  draws  a  parallel.  He  observes  that 
many  nations  of  them  to  the  north  of  the  Caspian  Sea  led  a  wan- 
dering life ;  which,  as  well  as  many  other  of  their  customs  and 
ways  of  living,  agrees,  in  many  circumstances,  with  the  Indians  of 
America.  And  though  the  resemblances  are  not  absolutely  per- 
fect, yet  the  emigrants,  even  before  they  left  their  own  country, 
differed  from  each  other,  and  went  not  by  the  same  name.  Their 
change  of  abode  affected  what  remained.  He  further  says  that  a 
similar  likeness  exists  between  several  American  nations  and  the 
Samoides,  who  are  settled,  according  to  the  Russian  account,  on  the 
great  River  Oby.  And  it  is  more  rational,  continues  he,  to  sup- 
pose that  colonies  of  their  nation  passed  over  to  America  by  cross- 
ing the  icy  sea  on  their  sledges  than  for  the  Norwegians  to  travel 
all  the  way  Grotius  has  marked  out  for  them. 

Emanuel  de  Moraez,  a  Portuguese,  in  his  history  of  Brazil,  as- 
serts that  America  has  been  wholly  peopled  by  the  Carthaginians 
and  Israelites.  He  brings,  as  a  proof  of  this  assertion,  the  discov- 
eries the  former  are  known  to  have  made  at  a  great  distance  be- 
yond the  coast  of  Africa,  the  progress  of  which  being  put  a  stop 
to  by  the  Senate  of  Carthage,  those  who  happened  to  be  then  in 
the  newly  discovered  countries,  being  cut  off  from  all  communi- 
cation with  their  countrymen,  and  destitute  of  many  necessaries 
of  life,  fell  into  a  state  of  barbarism.  As  to  the  Israelites,  this 
author  thinks  that  nothing  but  circumcision  is  wanted  in  order  to 
constitute  a  perfect  resemblance  between  them  and  the  Brazilians.* 

George  de  Huron,  a  learned  Dutchman,  has  likewise  written  on 
the  subject.  He  believes  that  the  first  founders  of  the  Indian 
colonies  were  Scythians ;  that  the  Phoenicians  and  Carthaginians 
afterwards  got  footing  in  America  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and 
the  Chinese  by  way  of  the  Pacific,  and  that  other  nations  might, 
from  time  to  time,  have  landed  there  by  one  or  other  of  these 
ways,  or  might  possibly  have  been  thrown  on  the  coasts  by  tem- 
pests, since  through  the  whole  extent  of  that  continent,  both  in  its 
northern  and  southern  parts,  we  meet  with  undoubted  marks  of  a 
mixture  of  northern  nations  with  those  who  have  come  from  other 
places,  etc. 

Pierre  de  Charlevoix,  a  Frenchman,  who  in  his  journal  of  a  voy- 

*  Indian  circumcision  is  mentioned  by  an  author. 


CHAP.  XVIII.]  OS1    AMERICA.  193 

age  to  North  America,  made  so  lately  as  the  year  1720,  has  reca- 
pitulated the  opinion  of  a  variety  of  authors  on  this  head,  to  which 
he  has  subjoined  his  own  conjectures.  He  quotes  both  Solinus 
and  Pliny  to  prove  that  the  Scythian  Anthropophagi  once  depopu- 
lated a  great  extent  of  country  as  far  as  the  promontory  of  Tabin  ; 
and  also  an  author  of  a  later  date,  Marko  Polo,  a  Venetian,  who, 
he  says,  tells  us  that  to  the  northeast  of  China  and  Tartary  there 
are  vast  uninhabited  countries  which  might  be  sufficient  to  con- 
firm any  conjectures  concerning  the  retreat  of  a  great  number  of 
Scythians  into  America.  To  this  he  adds  that  we  find  in  the  an- 
cients the  names  of  some  of  these  nations.  Pliny  speaks  of  the 
Tabians,  Solinus  mentions  the  Apulians,  who  had  for  neighbors 
the  Massagetes,  whom  Pliny  since  assures  us  to  have  entirely  dis- 
appeared. Ammianus  Marcellin us  expressly  tells  us  that  the  fear 
of  the  Anthropophagi  obliged  several  of  the  inhabitants  of  those 
countries  to  take  refuge  elsewhere.  From  all  these  authorities 
Charlevoix  concludes  that  there  is  at  least  room  to  conjecture  that 
more  than  one  nation  in  America  had  the  Scythian  or  Tartarian 
original. 

I  shall  only  add,  to  give  my  reader  a  more  comprehensive  view 
of  Charlevoix's  dissertation,  the  method  he  proposes  to  come  at  the 
truth  of  what  we  are  in  search  of.  The  only  means  by  which 
this  can  be  done,  he  says,  is  by  comparing  the  language  of  the 
Americans  with  the  different  nations  from  whence  we  might  sup- 
pose they  have  peregrinated.  If  we  compare  the  former  with  those 
words  that  are  considered  as  primitives,  it  might  possibly  set  us 
upon  some  happy  discovery.  And  this  way  of  ascending  to  the 
original  of  nations,  which  is  by  far  the  least  equivocal,  is  not  so 
difficult  as  might  be  imagined.  We  have  had,  and  still  have, 
travellers  and  missionaries  who  attained  the  languages  that  are 
spoken  in  all  the  provinces  of  the  New  World ;  it  would  only  be 
necessary  to  make  a  collection  of  their  grammars  and  vocabula- 
ries, and  to  collate  them  with  the  dead  and  living  languages  of 
the  Old  World,  that  pass  for  originals,  and  the  similarity  might 
easily  be  traced.  Even  the  different  dialects,  in  spite  of  the  altera- 
tions they  have  undergone,  still  retain  enough  of  the  mother 
tongue  to  furnish  considerable  light.* 

Any  inquiry  into  the  manners,  customs,  religion  or  traditions 
of  the  Americans,  in  order  to  discover,  by  that  means,  their  origin, 
he  thinks  would  prove  fallacious.  Ancient  traditions  are  effaced 

*  This  suggestion,  made  175  years  ago  by  a  very  learned  man,  has  not,  I  be- 
lieve, ever  been  acted  on,  and  yet  colleges  have  multiplied,  and  so  have  their 
endowments,  and  so  have  millionairess  and  missionaries. 

13 


194  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIX. 

from  the  minds  of  such  as  either  have  not  or  for  several  ages  have 
been  without  those  helps  that  are  necessary  to  preserve  them. 
And  in  this  situation  is  full  one- half  of  the  world.  New  events 
and  new  arrangements  of  things  give  rise  to  new  traditions  which 
efface  the  former  and  are  themselves  effaced  in  turn.  After  one  or 
two  centuries  have  passed  there  no  longer  remain  any  traces  of 
the  first  traditions,  and  thus  we  are  involved  in  a  state  of  uncer- 
tainty. As  we  are  destitute  of  historical  monuments,  there  is  noth- 
ing but  a  knowledge  of  the  primitive  languages  that  is  capable  of 
throwing  any  light  upon  these  clouds  of  impenetrable  darkness. 

By  this  inquiry  we  should,  at  least,  be  satisfied,  among  that 
prodigious  number  of  various  nations  inhabiting  America  and 
differing  so  much  in  languages  from  each  other,  which  are  those 
that  make  use  of  words  totally  and  entirely  different  from  those  of 
the  Old  World,  and  who  consequently  must  be  reckoned  to  have 
passed  over  to  America  in  the  earliest  ages,  and  which  those  that, 
from  the  analogy  of  their  language  with  such  as  are  at  present  used 
in  the  three  other  parts  of  the  globe,  leave  room  to  judge  that  their 
migration  has  been  more  recent.* 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Tumuli — Ucita — Cutifachiqui  —  Cartersville  Mounds — Idols — Casquin — Capaha 
— Breckenridge's  Description  of  Capaha — The  Tensas  Mounds— Tonti  and 
the  Tensas  Indians — The  Destruction  of  their  Temple. 

ON  Friday,  the  30th  of  May,  1539,  De  Soto  landed  in  Florida 
two  leagues  from  a  town  of  an  Indian  chief  called  Ucita.  "  The 
chief's  house  stood  near  the  shore,  upon  a  very  high  mount  made 
by  hand  for  strength.  At  another  end  of  the  town  stood  the 
church,  and  on  the  top  of  it  stood  a  fowl  made  of  wood,  with 
gilded  eyes.  Here  were  found  some  pearls  of  small  value,  spoiled 
by  the  fire,  which  the  Indians  do  pierce  and  string  them  like 
beads,  and  wear  them  about  their  necks  and  wrists,  and  they 
esteem  them  very  much.  The  houses  were  made  of  timber  and 
covered  with  palm  leaves."  The  Elvas  Narrative  tells  how  Ortez, 
being  sent  in  a  vessel  back  to  Cuba  by  Narvaez,  was  captured, 
and  how  Ucita  gave  him  the  charge  of  keeping  the  temple,  "be- 

*  It  will  be  seen,  at  the  end  of  this  book,  that  Jefferson  and  Volney  were  of 
the  same  opinion  as  Charlevoix. 


So  100 


—I 
3oo.fde.-t.' 


Sooyarate 


THE  TUMI:LI  OF  COFACIQTJE. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  195 

cause  that,  by  night,  the  wolves  did  carry  away  the  corpses  out 
of  the  same." 

Cutifachiqui  appears  to  have  been  a  flourishing  town  on  the  left, 
or  east,  bank  of  the  Savannah  River.  The  river  at  the  town  was 
so  wide,  deep,  and  rapid  that  several  horses  were  drowned  when 
the  Spaniards  drove  them  into  the  river  to  swim  across  it.  Charles 
C.  Jones,  author  of  the  "  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians," 
says  :  "  Tradition  designates  Silver  Bluff  as  the  site  of  the  ancient 
village  of  Cutifachiqui— a  marked  group  of  ancient  tumuli  resting 
upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Savannah  River,  some  twelve  or  fifteen 
miles  below  the  city  of  Augusta.  Thirty-five  years  ago  the  group 
numbered  six  mounds,  but  the  restless  river,  encroaching  steadily 
upon  the  Carolina  shore,  has  already  rolled  its  waters  over  two 
of  them,  while  other  two  have  so  far  yielded  to  the  levelling  in- 
fluence of  the  plowshare  as  to  be  almost  entirely  obliterated. 
Consequently  but  two  remain,  and  they  only  in  major  part,  one- 
third  of  each  having  been  washed  away  by  the  current;  and  the 
day  is  probably  not  far  distant  when  tradition  only  will  designate 
the  spot  once  memorable  in  the  annals  of  a  former  race  as  the 
site  of  monuments  of  unusual  size  and  interest  [15]. 

"  The  largest  tumulus  rises  thirty-seven  feet  above  the  plain, 
and  forty-seven  above  the  water-line.  Measured  east  and  west, 
its  summit  diameter  was  fifty-eight  feet,  while  in  consequence  of  the 
encroachment  of  the  river,  when  measured  in  a  northerly  and 
southerly  direction,  it  fell  a  little  short  of  thirty-eight  feet.  Its 
base  diameter  in  an  easterly  and  westerly  direction  was  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty-five  feet.  This  tumulus  may  be  truthfully  de- 
scribed as  a  truncated  cone,  its  sides  sloping  gently  and  evenly, 
and  its  apex-surface  level.  If  terraces  ever  existed,  they  are  no 
longer  apparent.  The  western  flank  of  this  mound  was  extended 
for  a  distance  some  twenty  yards  or  more  beyond  the  point  where 
it  otherwise  would  have  terminated,  respect  being  had  to  the  con- 
figuration of  the  eastern  and  southern  slopes.  About  two  feet 
below  the  present  surface  of  this  extension  is  a  continuous  layer 
of  charcoal,  baked  earth,  ashes,  broken  pottery,  shells,  and  bones. 
This  layer  is  about  twelve  inches  thick.  So  far  as  our  examina- 
tion extended — and  it  was  but  partial — the  admixture  of  human 
bones  was  very  slight,  the  bones,  of  which  there  were  vast  num- 
bers, consisting  of  those  of  animals  and  birds  native  to  this  region. 
This  stratum  can  be  traced  along  the  water-front  of  the  mound, 
as  though  it  existed  prior  to  its  construction.  The  superincum- 
bent mass  of  earth  seems  to  have  been  heaped  above  it.  Where  it 
penetrates  the  tumulus  it  is  well-nigh  coincident  with  a  prolon- 


196  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIX. 

gation  of  what  was  at  that  time  the  surface  of  the  surrounding 
swamp. 

"  The  mound  itself  is  composed  of  the  alluvium  of  the  adjacent 
field,  which  is  a  micaceous  clay,  richly  impregnated  with  vegetable 
mould.  No  traces  of  inhumation  could  be  perceived,  and  the  com- 
position of  the  tumulus  was  homogenous  as  far  as  ascertained. 

"  One  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  due  east  of  this  large  tumu- 
lus is  the  smaller  mound.  Its  appearance,  general  outline,  and 
composition  are  so  nearly  analogous  to  those  of  the  larger  mound 
that  a  specific  description  is  scarcely  necessary.  It  may  be  re- 
marked, however,  that,  possessing  a  base  diameter  of  one  hundred 
and  fourteen  feet,  it  rises  fifteen  feet  above  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  and  twenty-five  feet  above  the  level  of  the  river. 

"  These  tumuli  were,  in  days  long  since  numbered  with  an  un- 
recorded past,  isolated  by  a  moat  whose  traces  are  still  quite  observ- 
able. The  enclosed  space,  the  river  forming  the  northern  bound- 
ary, contains  a  conjectured  area  of  about  eight  acres.  Commencing 
at  the  river,  eastwardly  of  the  smaller  mound,  and  distant  from 
its  flank  some  thirty  yards,  this  ditch  extends  in  a  southerly 
direction  until  it  merges  into  what  now  seems  to  be  a  natural 
lagoon.  Following  this  in  a  westerly  course,  it  finally  leaves  it,  and 
thence  runs  almost  due  north  to  the  river,  into  which  it  empties 
at  about  eighty  yards  distance  from  the  western  flank  of  the  larger 
tumulus.  Here  the  communication  with  'the  river  is  still  perfect, 
but  the  upper  mouth  of  this  moat  is  now  dry.  It  varies  in  width 
from  twenty  to  forty  feet,  and  is  in  some  parts  wider  still."* 

The  following  is  from  accounts  of  De  Soto's  expedition : 

"  Within  a  league  and  a  half  above  this  town  were  great  towns 
depeopled  and  overgrown  with  grass,  which  showed  that  they  had 
long  been  without  inhabitants.  The  people  of  Cafaciqui  were 
brown,  well  made,  and  well  proportioned,  and  more  civil  than  any 
they  had  met  in  all  the  country  of  Florida,  and  all  of  them  went 
shod  and  clothed. 

The  governor  opened  a  large  temple  built  in  the  woods  in  which 
were  buried  the  chiefs  of  the  country,  and  took  from  it  a  quantity 
of  pearls,  and  little  babies  and  birds  made  of  them,  which  were 
spoiled  by  being  buried  in  the  ground.  We  dug  up  two  Spanish 
axes,  a  chaplet  of  wild  olive  seed,  and  some  small  beads  resem- 

*  From  this  description  it  appears  that  the  inhabitants  of  this  town  took 
advantage  of  a  lake  extending  parallel,  or  nearly  so,  to  the  river,  to  protect 
their  town  by  cutting,  from  near  each  extremity  of  this  lake,  a  ditch  to  the 
river,  thus  surrounding  it  with  water.  Abridged  from  the  "Antiquities  of  the 
Southern  Indians,"  by  Charles  C.  Jones. 


o 


THE  TUMULI  NEAR  CARTERSVILLE,  GEORGIA. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  197 

bling  those  we  had  brought  from  Spain  for  the  purpose  of  trading 
with  the  Indians.  We  conjectured  they  had  obtained  these  things 
by  trading  with  the  companions  of  Vasquez  de  Ayllon,  who  went 
to  this  country  in  the  year  1525.  The  Indians  told  us  the  sea  was 
only  about  thirty  leagues  distant,  and  that  the  haven  of  St.  Helena 
was  two  days'  journey  from  this  town."* 

The  next  mound  mentioned  by  the  early  authors  of  De  Soto's 
expedition  into  Florida  is  the  great  mound  two  miles  below  Car- 
tersville,  in  Bartow  county,  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  and  near  the 
Etowah  river.  Garcillasso  says: 

"  They  (the  Spaniards)  entered  into  the  capital  of  Guachoula, 
situated  among  many  streams  which  pass  on  both  sides  of  the 
town  and  come  from  the  mountains  which  are  round  about.  The 
chief  received  the  general  and  lodged  him  in  his  house,  which 
was  upon  a  mound  with  a  terrace  around  it,  where  six  men  could 
promenade  abreast." 

The  following,  I  believe,  sufficiently  shows  that  this  mound  is 
the  one  mentioned  near  Cartersville :  From  there  De  Soto  went 
to  Iciaha.  "  To  go  there  he  descended  along  the  many  streams 
which  pass  by  Guachoula,  and  which  unite  at  some  distance  from 
there  and  make  a  river  so  powerful  that  in  the  province  of  Iciaha, 
distant  about  thirty  leagues  from  the  other,  it  is  larger  than  the  Gua- 
dalquiver,  which  passes  by  Seville.  The  capital  of  Iciaha  is  at  the 
point  of  an  island  of  more  than  five  leagues.  The  town  was  on  an 
island  between  two  arms  of  a  river,  and  was  seated  nigh  one  of 
them.  The  river  divided  itself  into  those  two  branches  two  cross- 
bow shots  above  the  town,  and  meet  again  a  league  below  the 
same.  The  plain  between  both  the  branches  is  sometimes  one 
cross-bow  shot,  sometimes  two  cross-bow  shots  over.  The  troops 
marched  along  the  island,  and  at  five  leagues  from  Iciaha  where 
the  river  of  this  country  unites  with  that  of  the  country  into 
which  they  were  entering,f  they  came  to  the  capital  of  Acosta ; 
from  there  they  entered  into  the  province  of  Coca  (Coosa). 

I  shall  now  give  the  description  of  this  mound  [16]  and  its  local- 
ity, contained  in  the  "Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,"  by 
Charles  C.  Jones,  of  Georgia : 

"  Viewed  as  a  whole,  this  group  is  the  most  remarkable  within 
the  confines  of  the  State.  These  mounds  are  situated  in  the  midst 
of  a  beautiful  and  fertile  valley.  They  occupy  a  central  position 
in  an  area  of  some  fifty  acres,  bounded  on  the  south  and  east  by 
the  Etowah  river,  and  on  the  north  and  west  by  a  large  ditch  or 

*  "Bied ma's"  and  "  Elva's  Narrative. " 

t  The  junction  of  the  Etowah  and  Oostenaula  makes  the  Coosa. 


198  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIX. 

artificial  canal,  which  at  its  lower  end  communicates  directly  with 
the  river.  This  moat  at  present  varies  in  depth  from  five  to 
twenty-five  feet,  and  in  width  from  twenty  to  seventy-five  feet.* 
No  parapets  or  earthworks  appear  upon  the  edges.  Along  its 
lines  are  two  reservoirs  of  about  an  acre  each,  of  an  average  depth 
of  not  less  than  twenty  feet.  Its  upper  end  extends  into  an  arti- 
ficial pond  elliptical  in  form  and  somewhat  deeper  than  the  two 
reservoirs. 

Within  the  enclosure  formed  by  this  moat  and  the  river 
are  seven  mounds.  Three  of  them  are  pre-eminent  in  size,  and 
one  far  surpassing  the  others  both  in  its  proportions  and  in  the 
degree  of  interest  which  attaches  to  it.  Composed  of  earth,  sim- 
ple but  impressive  in  form,  it  seems  calculated  for  an  almost  end- 
less duration.  The  soil,  gravel  and  smaller  stones  taken  from  the 
moat  and  the  reservoirs  were  expended  in  the  construction  of  these 
tumuli.  The  surface  of  the  ground  for  a  considerable  distance 
around  the  northern  bases  was  then  removed  and  placed  upon 
their  summits.  Viewed  from  the  north  the  valley  dips  toward  the 
mounds,  so  that  they  appear  to  lift  themselves  from  out  a  basin. 

The  central  tumulus  rises  about  sixty-five  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  valley.  It  is  entirely  artificial,  consisting  wholly  of  the  earth 
taken  from  the  moat  and  the  excavations  in  connection  with  the 
soil  collected  around  its  base.  It  has  received  no  assistance  what- 
ever from  any  natural  hill  or  elevation.  In  general  outline  it  may 
be  regarded  as  quadrangular,  if  we  disregard  a  slight  angle  to  the 
south.  That  taken  into  account  its  form  is  pentagonal,  with  sum- 
mit admeasurements  as  follows :  Length  of  northern  side,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet ;  of  eastern  side,  one  hundred  and  sixty 
feet;  of  south-eastern  side  one  hundred  feet;  of  southern  side,  nine- 
ty feet;  and  of  western  side,  one  hundred  feet.  Its  longest  apex 
diameter,  from  east  to  west,  is  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet, 
and  from  north  to  south  about  two  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  On 
its  summit  this  tumulus  is  nearly  level.  Shorn  of  the  luxuriant 
vegetation  and  tall  fruit  trees,  which  at  one  time  crowned  it  on 
every  side,  the  outlines  of  this  mound  stand  in  bold  relief.  Its 
angles  are  still  sharply  defined.f  The  established  approach  to  the 
top  is  from  the  east.  Its  ascent  was  accomplished  through  the 
intervention  of  terraces  rising  one  above  the  other,  inclined  planes 
leading  from  the  one  to  the  other.!  These  terraces  are  sixty-five 

*  It  is  probable  that  some,  if  not  most,  of  these  large  moats  were  originally 
sluices  or  bayous,  or  small  branches  of  a  river  forming  an  island. 

|  "Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians"  was  published  April,  1873. 

J  "These  inclined  planes  have  been  considerably  worn  away  by  the  elements, 
so  that  this  main  approach  reminds  the  observer  of  a  broad,  winding  ramp." 


CHAP.  XIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  199 

feet  in  width,  and  extend  from  the  mound  toward  the  southeast. 
Near  the  eastern  angle  a  pathway  leads  to  the  top. 

East  of  this  large  central  mound,  and  so  near  that  their  flanks 
meet  and  mingle,  stands  a  smaller  mound,  about  thirty-five  feet 
high,  originally  quadrangular,  now  nearly  circular  in  form,  and 
with  a  summit  diameter  of  one  hundred  feet.  From  its  western 
slope  is  an  easy  and  immediate  communication  with  the  terraces 
of  the  central  tumulus.  Two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  a  westerly 
direction  from  this  mound,  and  distant  some  sixty  feet  in  a  south- 
erly direction  from  the  central  mound, is  the  third  and  last  of  this 
immediate  group.  Pentagonal  in  form,  it  has  an  altitude  of 
twenty-three  feet.  It  is  uniformly  level  at  the  top,  and  its  apex 
diameters,  measured  at  right  angles,  were  respectively  ninety-two 
and  sixty-eight  feet. 

East  of  this  group,  and  within  the  enclosure,  is  a  chain  of  four 
sepulchral  mounds,  ovoidal  in  shape.  Nothing,  aside  from  their 
location  in  the  vicinity  of  these  larger  tumuli,  and  their  being 
within  the  area  formed  by  the  canal  and  the  river,  distinguishes 
them  from  numerous  earth-mounds  scattered  here  and  there 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Etowah  and  Oostenaula 
Valleys. 

The  artificial  elevation  lying  north-west  of  the  central  group  is 
remarkable  for  its  superficial  area,  and  is  completely  surrounded 
by  the  moat,  which  at  that  point  divides  with  a  view  to  its  enclo- 
sure. The  slope  of  the  sides  of  these  tumuli  is  just  such  as  would 
be  assumed  by  a  gradual  accretion  of  earth  successively  deposited 
in  small  quantities  from  above." 

We  have  the  positive  testimony  of  the  Cherokees  that  they  had 
not  even  a  tradition  of  the  race  by  whom  these  tumuli  had  been 
raised.  During  the  period  of  our  acquaintance  with  them  idol- 
worship  did  not  exist  among  the  Cherokees,  and  yet  within  this 
enclosure  three  stone  idols  have  been  found,  and  numerous  terra- 
cotta images,  fashioned  after  the  similitude  of  man,  beast  and  bird. 
Of  these  idols,  two,  cut  from  a  dark  sandstone,  were  respectively 
twelve  and  fifteen  inches  high,  and  represented  the  male  human 
figure  in  a  sitting  posture,  the  knees  drawn  up  almost  upon  a  level 
with  the  chin,  the  hands  resting  upon  and  clasping  either  knee. 
The  third  and  most  carefully  sculptured  Indian  idol  the  writer 
has  ever  seen  was  a  female  figure  made  of  dark  talcose  slate. 

In  1859  the  writer  examined  an  idol  which  had  been  ploughed 
up  near  the  large  mound  on  the  Etowah  River.  It  was  made  of 
coarse,  dark  sandstone,  and  was  twelve  inches  high.  The  chin 
and  forehead  were  retreating.  The  hair  was  gathered  into  a  knot 


200  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIX. 

behind.  The  face  was  upturned,  and  the  eyes  were  angular. 
Unfortunately  this  image  was  lost  or  destroyed  amid  the  desola- 
tion consequent  upon  Sherman's  march  through  Georgia,  in  1864, 
but  its  place  has  been  supplied  by  another  recently  found  in  the 
same  neighborhood.  It  was  ploughed  up  near  the  base  of  the 
large  tumulus,  and  is  certainly  the  most  interesting  idol  thus  far 
discovered  in  this  State  (Georgia).  It  is  a  female  figure  in  a  sit- 
ting posture.  Its  legs,  however,  are  entirely  rudimentary  and 
unformed.  Its  height  is  fifteen  inches  and  three-quarters,  and  its 
weight  thirty-three  and  a  half  pounds.  Cut  out  of  a  soft  talcose 
rock,  originally  of  a  grayish  hue,  it  has  in  time  been  so  much  dis- 
colored that  it  now  presents  a  ferruginous  appearance.  Below  the 
navel,  and  enveloping  the  buttocks  and  rudimentary  thighs,  is  a 
hip  dress,  ornamented  both  on  the  left  side  and  behind  by  rectan- 
gular, circular  and  irregular  lines.  The  ears  are  pierced,  and  the 
head  is  entirely  bald.  In  the  centre  of  the  top  of  the  head  is  a 
drilled  hole,  half  an  inch  in  depth,  and  five-tenths  of  an  inch  in 
diameter.  This  probably  formed  the  socket  in  which  some  head 
ornament  was  seated.  Springing  from  the  back  of  the  head  and 
attached  at  the  other  end  to  the  back,  midway  between  the  shoul- 
ders, is  a  substantial  handle.  The  mammillary  glands  are  sharply 
defined,  and  maidenly  in  their  appearance.  The  ears,  hands  and 
navel  are  rudely  formed.  The  impression  conveyed  is  that  of  a 
dead,  young  flat-head  Indian  woman.  The  left  arm  has  been 
broken  off,  but  otherwise  this  idol  is  in  a  remarkable  state  of 
preservation. 

As  we  look  upon  this  rude  monument  we  are  not  entirely  sure 
that  it  is  emblematic  of  a  past  idolatry.  It  may  be  the  effort  of 
some  primitive  sculptor  to  perpetuate  in  stone  the  form  and  feat- 
ures of  some  Indian  maiden,  famous  in  the  esteem  of  her  family 
and  tribe.  It  is  seemingly  older  than  the  handiwork  and  super- 
stition of  any  Indian  tribe  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  as  a 
resident  upon  the  beautiful  banks  of  the  Etowah. 

This  rude  stone  image  outliving  the  generation  by  which  it  was 
fashioned,  and  awakened  from  its  long  sleep  of  neglect  and  desue- 
tude, conveys  to  us  of  the  present  day  a  true  conception  of  the 
ignorance  and  superstition  of  that  by-gone  age,  affords  physical 
insight  into  the  condition  of  the  sculptor's  art  at  that  remote 
period,  and  confirms  the  past  existence  of  peoples  whose  names 
and  origin  are  the  subjects  only  of  speculation,  whose  history  is 
perpetuated  simply  by  a  few  archaic  relics,  which,  having  success- 
fully wrestled  with  the  disintegrating  influences  of  time,  remain 
uncrushed  by  the  tread  of  another  and  a  statelier  civilization. 


CHAP.  XIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  201 

The  great  age  of  these  structures  is  demonstrated  by  the  char- 
acter of  the  works  themselves,  which  are  not  the  hastily-erected 
monuments  of  migratory  bands,  but  the  ruins  of  temples,  areas 
and  burial-places  carefully  considered,  of  massive  dimensions,  and 
indicating  the  consecutive,  combined  and  extensive  labor  of  a  con- 
siderable population  permanently  established. 

The  eastern  angle  of  the  central  mound  is  very  prominent,  and 
the  upper  surface  in  that  direction  is  more  elevated.  Just  here 
have  been  found  traces  of  hearths  or  altars,  giving  ample  token  of 
the  continued  presence  of  fire,  and  perhaps  of  sacrifice.  The  ter- 
races lie  towards  the  east,  and  there  is  that  about  this  tumulus 
which  induces  the  belief  that  it  was  erected  for  religious  purposes, 
and  that  upon  its  eastern  summit  religious  rites  were  performed 
and  oblations  offered  to  the  great  divinity,  the  sun.  The  broad 
terraces  and  adjacent  dependent  tumuli  afforded  space  for  the  as- 
sembling of  worshippers  at  the  appointed  hour,  when,  from  the 
elevated  eastern  summit  of  the  large  tumulus,  the  eye  of  the  offi- 
ciating priest  caught  the  earliest  rays  of  the  rising  sun,  as,  lifting 
his  face  from  out  the  shadows  of  the  distant  hills,  he  smiled  upon 
this  beautiful  valley.* 

There  is  a  remarkable  mound  mentioned  in  the  accounts  of  the 
De  Soto  expedition  into  Florida.  When  De  Soto  crossed  the 
Mississippi  river  in  the  spring  of  1541,  he  proceeded  up  that  river 
to  the  St.  Francis,  which  he  crossed,  and  marched  up  along  its  left 
or  east  bank  until  he  arrived  at  a  place  called  Casqui,  where,  near 
the  river,  was  a  large  artificial  mound,  on  whioh  he  erected  a  cross. 
On  this  occasion  mass  was  celebrated,  and  a  procession  formed. 
In  speaking  of  the  country  along  the  St.  Francis,  it  is  said :  "  This 
country  is  higher,  drier  and  more  champaign  than  any  part  bor- 
dering near  the  river  that  until  then  they  had  seen.  The  woods 
were  very  thin.  The  governor  travelled  two  days  through  the 
country  of  Casqui  before  he  came  to  the  town,  and  most  of  the 
way  was  always  by  champaign  ground,  which  was  full  of  great 
towns,  so  that  from  one  town  you  might  see  two  or  three. 

The  procession  on  the  consecration  of  the  cross  amounted  to 
about  one  thousand  persons.  On  the  other  side  of  the  river  there 
were  about  fifteen  or  twenty. thousand  persons  of  all  ages  and 
sexes.f 

*  "  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians." 

f  Crowley's  ridge  borders  the  St.  Francis  river  on  the  west  or  right  side,  and 
it  is  probable  that  this  ridge  adjoined  the  river  at  Casqui,  and  that  the  Indians 
from  its  sides  or  from  its  summit  looked  down  across  the  river  upon  the  pro- 
cession. 


202  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIX. 

From  Casquin,  De  Soto  went  to  Capaha,  situated  on  the  Missis- 
sippi river.  The  chief  of  Casquin  accompanied  him  with  five 
thousand  warriors,  without  counting  three  thousand  Indians 
loaded  with  provisions  and  very  well  armed,  and  arrived,  at  the 
end  of  three  days,  upon  an  eminence  from  which  they  saw  the 
capital  of  Capaha,  very  well  fortified.  Upon  Wednesday,  the  19th 
of  June,  1541,  the  governor  entered  Pacaha  (Capaha).  He 
lodged  in  the  town,  which  was  very  great,  walled  and  beset  with 
towers,  and  many  loopholes  were  in  the  towers  and  walls.  Within 
a  league  and  a  half  were  great  towns,  all  walled.  Where  the  gov- 
ernor was  lodged  was  a  great  lake  that  came  near  unto  the  wall, 
and  it  entered  into  a  ditch  that  went  round  about  the  town,  want- 
ing but  little  to  environ  it  around.  From  the  lake  to  the  great 
river*  was  made  a  weir  by  which  the  fish  came  into  it.  With  nets 
that  were  in  the  town  they  took  as  much  as  they  would,  and  took 
they  ever  so  much,  there  was  no  want  perceived. 

This  town  is  upon  a  small  eminence,  and  has  some  five  hundred 
good  houses,  and  a  ditch  of  ten  or  twelve  fathoms,  fifty  paces 
wide  in  most  places  and  forty  at  others.  Besides,  it  was  filled  with 
water  by  means  of  a  canal  which  they  had  extended  from  the 
place  to  the  Chucagua.  This  canal  was  three  leagues  long,  at 
least  as  deep  as  a  pikestaff,  and  so  wide  that  two  large  boats 
abreast  could  very  easily  ascend  and  descend.  The  ditch,  which 
is  filled  by  the  canal,  surrounds  the  town,  except  at  a  place  that 
is  closed  by  a  palisade  of  large  posts  fixed  in  the  ground,  fastened 
by  other  cross-piece^  of  wood  and  plastered  with  loam  and  straw. 

The  people  of  Casquin  entered  the  temple  where  were  the  sep- 
ulchre of  his  (Capaha' s)  ancestors,  and  carried  off  all  its  riches. 
They  broke  the  coffins,  and  scattered  on  all  sides  the  bones  of  the 
dead.  Then,  through  rage,  they  trampled  them  under  their  feet, 
took  away  the  heads  of  their  (Casquin' s)  people  that  were  upon 
the  ends  of  lances  at  the  doors  of  the  temple,  and  put  in  their 
places  those  which  they  had  cut  from  the  inhabitants  of  Capaha. 
Finally,  they  omitted  nothing  that  could  mortally  offend  their 
enemies.  They  even  deliberated  about  burning  the  temple  and 
the  houses  of  the  cacique,  and  were  prevented  only  because  they 
were  afraid  of  offending  De  Soto,  who  arrived  after  this  disorder.f 

•*  "Great  River."     The  Mississippi,  also  called  Chucagua. 

f  Taken  from  the  El va  Narrative,  Biedma  and  Garcilasso.  I  have  thus  treated 
the  reader  to  a  particular  description  of  an  Indian  fortified  town,  near  the  banks 
of  the  Mississippi,  as  it  existed  three  hundred  and  fifty-four  years  ago,  and  from 
the  numerous  mounds  still  existing  on  the  Yazoo  and  St.  Francis  bottoms,  it  is 
probable  there  were  many  of  them  there  at  that  time.  And  this  description  of 
Capaha  may  in  part  be  applied  to  Cofacique,  showing  that  the  canal  which 


CHAP.  XIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  203 

The  country  over  which  De  Soto  travelled  from  the  St.  Francis 
to  the  Mississippi,  in  June,  1541,  has  undergone  great  changes 
since  then,  and  though  the  dreadful  earthquake  of  December,  1811, 
is  recorded,  yet  in  the  two  hundred  and  seventy  years  that  pre- 
ceded that  event,  changes  as  great  may  have  happened.  But 
whether  the  Indian  fort  above  described  is  the  one  which  Breck- 
enridge  saw  in  1811,  and  describes  in  his  "Views  of  Louisiana," 
or  some  other  Indian  town,  yet  it  will  do  to  confirm  the  description 
of  Garcilasso,  and  to  show  that  such  towns  actually  existed.  Be- 
sides what  has  already  been  mentioned  of  the  remains  of  the  great 
Indian  town  of  Cofacique,  on  the  east  or  left  bank  of  the  Savannah 
river,  gives  additional  evidence  of  the  existence  of  such  towns 
three  hundred  and  fifty-four  years  ago,  when  all  the  fertile  places 
from  Cofacique,  on  the  Savannah,  to  Capaha,  on  the  Mississippi, 
were  densely  populated  with  Indians  of  the  present  race,  for  the 
names  there  used  show  that  the  Apalache,  Coosa,  Alabama,  Chicka- 
saw,  Chockchuma,  Cappa  and  Kaskaskia  tribes  of  Indians  existed 
at  that  time. 

The  following  is  Breckenridge's  account  of  an  ancient  town  near 
New  Madrid,  on  the  Mississippi  river.  He  says :  "  The  river  at 
the  upper  end  of  the  town  (New  Madrid)  is  called  the  Bayou  St. 
John,  and  affords  an  excellent  harbor.*  Below  the  town  there  is 
a  beautiful  lake,  six  or  eight  feet  deep,  with  a  clear,  sandy  bottom, 
and  communicating  with  the  St.  Francis  and  the  Mississippi 
in  high  water.  On  the  bank  of  this  lake,  about  four  miles  from 
New  Madrid,  there  is  one  of  the  largest  Indian  mounds  in  the 
western  country.  As  near  as  I  can  compute,  it  is  twelve  hundred 
feet  in  circumference  and  about  forty  in  height,  level  on  the  top, 
and  surrounded  with  a  ditch  five  feet  deep  and  ten  wide.  In  this 
neighborhood  there  are  traces  of  a  great  population." 

Opposite  Redney,  a  village  on  the  east  or  left  bank  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, and  about  twenty-five  miles  above  Natchez,  there  are  two 
or  three  lakes,  Bruin,  St.  John  and  St.  Joseph.  There  was  for- 
merly a  communication,  between  the  Mississippi,  at  this  point,  and 
the  Tensas,  through  a  bayou  and  these  lakes,  on  one  of  which  is 
a  very  large  mound.  It  was  here  that  the  Tensas  Indians  resided 
in  1682  and  had  a  temple,  probably  on  this  mound.  The  follow- 
partly  surrounded  that  town  was  not  only  for  defense,  but  to  take  fish  and  afford 
a  harbor  for  their  canoes  and  other  boats. 

*  Steamboats  were  not  then  in  existence  ;  the  "  excellent  harbor11  was  for  keel- 
boats,  barges,  flat-boats  and  canoes.  The  first  steamboat  west  of  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  anchored  at  an  island  a  few  miles  below  New  Madrid,  the  eve  of  the 
great  earthquake  of  December,  1811. 


204  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XIX. 

ing  is  Tonti's  account  of  his  visit  to  this  temple  at  that  time : 
"  When  we  arrived  opposite  the  village  of  the  Taencas,  Mr.  La 
Salle  desired  me  to  go  to  it  and  inform  the  chief  of  his  arrival.  I 
went  with  our  guides  and  we  had  to  carry  a  bark  canoe  for  ten 
arpens,  and  to  launch  it  on  a  small  lake,  on  which  their  village  was 
placed.  I  was  surprised  to  find  their  cabins  made  of  mud  and 
covered  with  cane  mats.  The  cabin  of  the  chief  was  forty  feet 
square,  the  wall  ten  feet  high,  a  foot  thick,  and  the  roof,  which 
was  of  a  dome-shape,  about  fifteen  feet  high.  I  was  not  less  sur- 
prised when  on  entering,  I  saw  the  chief  seated  on  a  camp  bed, 
with  three  of  his  wives  at  his  side,  surrounded  by  more  than  sixty 
old  men  clothed  in  large  white  cloaks,  which  are  made  by  the 
women  out  of  the  mulberry  tree,  and  are  tolerably  well-worked. 
The  women  were  clothed  in  the  same  manner,  and  every  time  the 
chief  spoke  to  them,  before  answering  him,  they  howled  and  cried 
out  several  times  O-o-o !  to  show  their  respect  to  him,  for  their 
chiefs  are  held  in  as  much  respect  as  our  kings.  No  one  drinks 
out  of  the  chief's  cup,  no  one  can  eat  out  of  his  plate,  and  no  one 
passes  before  him  ;  -when  he  walks  they  clean  the  path  before  him, 
When  he  dies  they  sacrifice  his  youngest  wife,  his  house-steward. 
and  a  hundred  men  to  accompany  him  into  the  other  world. 
They  have  a  form  of  worship,  and  adore  the  Sun.  There  is  a  tem- 
ple opposite  the  house  of  the  chief,  and  similar  to  it,  except  that 
three  eagles  are  placed  on  this  temple,  which  look  towards  the 
rising  sun.  The  temple  is  surrounded  with  strong  mud  walls,  in 
which  are  fixed  spikes,  on  which  they  place  the  heads  of  their 
enemies  whom  they  sacrifice  to  the  Sun.  At  the  door  of  the  tem- 
ple is  a  block  of  wood,  on  which  is  a  great  shell  (vignot}  and 
plaited  around  with  the  hair  of  their  enemies,  in  a  plait  as  thick 
as  an  arm,  and  about  twenty  fathoms  (toises)  long.  The  inside  of 
the  temple  is  naked;  there  is  an  altar  in  the  middle,  and  at  the 
foot  of  the  altar  three  logs  of  wood  are  placed  on  end,  and  a  fire  is 
kept  up  day  and  night  by  two  old  priests  who  are  the  directors  of 
their  worship.  These  old  men  showed  me  a  small  cabinet,  within 
the  wall  made  of  mats  of  cane.  Desiring  to  see  what  was  inside 
the  old  men  prevented  me,  giving  me  to  understand  that  their  god 
was  there.  But  I  have  since  learned  that  it  is  the  place  where 
they  keep  their  treasure,  such  as  fine  pearls,  which  they  fish  up  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  European  merchandise.  At  the  last  quar- 
ter of  the  moon  all  the  cabins  make  an  offering  of  a  dish  of  the 
best  food  they  have,  which  is  placed  at  the  door  of  the  temple. 
The  old  men  take  care  to  carry  it  away  and  make  a  good  feast  of 
it,  with  their  families.  Every  spring  they  make  a  clearing,  which 


CHAP.  XIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  205 

they  name  '  the  field  of  the  Spirit,'  when  all  the  men  work  to  the 
sound  of  the  drum.  In  the  autumn  the  Indian  corn  is  harvested 
with  much  ceremony,  and  stored  in  magazines  until  the  month  of 
June  in  the  following  year,  when  all  the  village  assemble  and  in- 
vite their  neighbors  to  eat  it.  They  do  not  leave  the  ground  until 
they  have  eaten  it  all,  making  great  rejoicings  the  whole  time. 
This  is  all  I  learned  of  this  nation.  The  three  villages  below  have 
the  same  custom."* 

The  Tensas  were  united  to  the  Natchez  nation  and  had  the  same 
religion.  When  Iberville  ascended  the  Misssissippi  to  the  Tensas 
village,  in  1700,  this  temple  was  destroyed  and  the  following  is  the 
account  of  it  by  Penicaut,  who  was  present  on  that  occasion  : 
"On  the  12th  of  April  (1700)  we  left  the  Natchez  and  coasted 
along  to  the  right  where  the  river  is  bordered  with  high  gravelly 
banks  for  a  distance  of  twelve  leagues ;  at  the  extremity  of  these 
bluffs  is  a  place  we  called  Petit  Gulf,  on  account  of  a  whirlpool 
formed  by  the  river.  Eight  leagues  higher  up  we  came  to  Grand 
Gulf.  A  short  distance  above  we  landed  on  the  left-hand  side  to 
visit  a  village  situated  four  leagues  in  the  interior.  These  Indians 
are  called  the  Tensas.  We  were  well  received  ;  but  I  never  saw  a 
more  sad,  frightful  and  revolting  spectacle  than  that  which  hap- 
pened the  second  day  (16th  of  April)  after  our  arrival  in  this  vil- 
lage. A  sudden  storm  burst  upon  us.  The  lightning  struck  the 
temple,  burned  up  the  idols,  and  reduced  the  whole  to  ashes. 
Quickly  the  Indians  assemble  around,  making  horrible  cries,  tear- 
ing out  their  hair,  elevating  their  hands  to  heaven,  their  tawny 
visages  turned  towards  the  burning  temple,  invoking,  with  the 
bowlings  of  devils  possessed,  the  Great  Spirit  to  come  down  and 
extinguish  the  flames.  They  took  up  mud,  with  which  they  be- 
smeared their  bodies  and  faces.  The  fathers  and  mothers  then 
brought  their  children,  and  after  having  strangled  them,  threw 
them  into  the  flames.  Mr.  Iberville  was  horrified  at  seeing  such  a 
cruel  spectacle,  and  gave  orders  to  stop  it  by  forcibly  taking  from 
them  the  little  innocents  ;  but  with  all  our  efforts,  seventeen  per- 
ished in  this  manner,  and,  had  we  not  restrained  them,  the  num- 
ber would  have  been  over  two  hundred."f 

*  "  The  three  villages  below'1  probably  alludes  to  the  Natchez  villages. 

f  Father  Le  Petit,  speaking  of  the  Natchez,  says  :  "  If  one  has  distinguished 
himself  by  some  act  of  zeal  he  is  then  publicly  praised.  Such  a  case  happened 
the  year  1702.  The  temple  having  been  struck  by  lightning  and  reduced  to 
ashes,  seven  or  eight  women  cast  their  infants  into  the  midst  of  the  flames  to  ap- 
pease the  wrath  of  heaven.  The  chief  called  these  heroines  and  gave  them 
great  praises  for  the  courage  with  which  they  sacrificed  that  which  they  held 
most  dear." 

The  preceding  is  from  a  note  to  ' '  Charlevoix  Journal ' '  in  the  His.  Col.  of 


206  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 


CHAPTER    XX. 

The  Natchez — The  Home  of  the  Natchez — Tonti  and  LaSalle's  Visit  to  the 
Tensas  and  Natchez  in  1682 — Iberville's  Visit  to  the  Natchez  in  1700 — 
Penicaut's  Account  of  the  Natchez — The  Burial  of  the  Great  Female  Sun — 
Dupratz's  Account  of  the  Natchez — The  Burial  of  the  Stung  Serpent. 

THERE  is  a  strip  of  land  along  the  east  bank  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  extending  from  the  Yazoo  river  to  the  Loftus  Heights,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  a  hundred  miles,  which  is  seventeen  miles  wide  at 
the  present  town  of  Natchez,  but  its  width  varies,  being  not  less, 
but  considerably  more  at  some  places.  Through  this  land  flows 
the  Big  Black  river,  the  Bayou  Pierre,  Coles  creek,  the  St.  Catha- 
rine creek,  Second  creek,  and  the  Homochilto,  all  emptying  into 
the  Mississippi,  except  Second  creek,  which  flows  into  the  Homo- 
chilto. The  territory  is  all  high  land,  excepting  along  the  water- 
courses, and  is  about  two  hundred  feet  above  the  ordinary  level 
of  the  Mississippi,  where  the  river  washes  it,  as  it  does  at  Vicks- 
burg,  Redney,  Natchez,  and  Ellis  Cliffs.  In  the  intervening  spaces 
along  the  river  between  these  places  there  is  but  a  narrow  strip  of 
alluvial  land.  Nearly  the  whole  of  this  territory  was  originally 
covered  with  tall  forest  trees  and  dense  canebrakes.  The  large 
game  that  ranged  through  these  forests  and  brakes  were  buffalo, 
bear,  deer,  and  panthers ;  there  were  also  beavers.  It  was  the 
hunter's  paradise,  the  richest  and  most  beautiful  country  on  the 
borders  of  the  Lower  Mississippi.  This  was  the  home  of  the 
Natchez  Indians,  and  a  part  of  what  was  known  as  the  Natchez 
District. 

The  chief  village  of  the  Natchez  Indians  was  on  St.  Catharine's 
creek,  and  three  miles  east  of  the  Mississippi,  at  the  present  town 
of  Natchez,  capital  of  Adams  county,  in  the  State  of  Mississippi. 
This  creek,  which  has  carried  away  a  part  of  the  bottom  land 
and  half  of  the  principal  mound  of  the  village,  after  flowing  about 
three  miles,  almost  parallel  to  the  course  of  the  Mississippi,  turns 
westwardly  and  nearly  reaches  the  Mississippi  at  a  point  about 
three  miles  south  of  Natchez,  and  at  the  terminus  of  the  bluff  in 
the  bottom-lands  of  the  creek.  At  this  point  the  stream  turns 
south  westwardly,  flowing  with  the  general  course  of  the  Missis- 
Louisiana.  There  is  no  account  of  the  Temple  of  the  Natchez  being  struck  by 
lightning  and  reduced  to  ashes.  It  was  the  Temple  of  the  Tensas  that  was  de- 
stroyed by  lightning. 


CHAP.  XX.]  Ofc    AMERICA.  207 

sippi,  and  empties  into  it  at  Ellis  Cliffs.  It  is  probable  that  the 
St.  Catharine,  at  one  time,  flowed  directly  into  the  Mississippi  at 
the  bend  where  it  turns  south westwardly,  for  near  there  is  a  quad- 
rangular mound  abdut  forty  feet  broad,  sixty  feet  long  and  eight 
feet  high.  What  is  singular  is  that  this  mound  should  be  built  on 
the  alluvium  land,  subject  to  inundation,  and  within  about  a  hun- 
dred yards  of  the  high  land.  It  is  plain  that  it  was  never  built 
as  a  refuge  in  floods,  but  probably  some  superstitious  idea  required 
it  to  be  placed  near  the  junction  of  water-courses,  or  the  advan- 
tages of  the  protection  against  enemies  that  they  afforded  and  the 
facilities  for  fishing.  It  is  probable  that  this  mound  has  been  con- 
siderably higher,  and  that  the  deposits  of  mud  made  by  the  Mis- 
sissippi reduced  its  elevation.* 

The  first  notice  of  the  Natchez  Indians  is  given  by  Tonti,  who 
with  La  Salle  descended  the  Mississippi  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Illinois  and  arrived  at  that  of  the  Mississippi  the  9th  of  April, 
1682.  Tonti  says  :  "  We  left  (Tensas)  on  the  22d  (of  March)  and 
slept  in  an  island  ten  leaguesf  away.  The  next  day  we  saw  a 
canoe,  and  Mr.  La  Salle  ordered  me  to  chase  it,  which  I  did,  and 
when  I  was  just  on  the  point  of  taking  it  more  than  one  hundred 
men  appeared  on  the  bank  of  the  river  to  defend  their  people. 
Mr.  La  Salle  shouted  out  to  me  to  come  back,  which  I  did.  We 
went  on  and  encamped  opposite  them.  Afterwards,  Mr.  La  Salle 
expressing  a  wish  to  meet  them  peaceably,  I  offered  to  carry  to 
them  the  calumet  of  peace,  and,  embarking,  went  to  them.  At 
first  they  joined  their  hands,  as  a  sign  that  they  wished  to  be 
friends.  I,  who  had  but  one  hand,  told  our  men  to  do  the  same 
thing. 

I  made  the  chief  men  among  them  cross  over  to  Mr.  La  Salle, 
who  accompanied  them  to  their  village,  three  miles  inland,!  an^ 
passed  the  night  there  with  some  of  his  men.  The  next  day  he 
returned  with  the  chief  of  the  village  where  he  had  slept,  who  was 
a  brother  of  the  great  chief  of  the  Natchez.  He  conducted  us  to 

*  The  great  number  of  mounds  on  the  alluvial  lands  of  the  Mississippi  river 
have  doubtless  been  affected  in  the  same  way.  The  bases  of  these  mounds  are 
probably  several  feet  below  the  present  surface,  and  generally  the  deeper  the 
base  below  the  present  surface,  the  greater  the  age  of  the  mound.  Some  im- 
portant facts  might  be  brought  to  light  by  a  thorough  examination  of  the 
bases  of  these  mounds  by  persons  properly  qualified  to  make  an  investigation. 

t  French  leagues.     The  island  was,  probably,  Fairchild's  Island. 

|  This  village,  probably,  was  either  at  the  Sultzertown  mound  or  at  the  large 
mound  on  the  St.  Catharine  creek,  and  about  eight  or  nine  miles  from  the 
present  town  of  Natchez,  and  about  six  miles  above  the  Natchez  village.  It 
was  known  as  the  Korea's  village. 


208  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

his  brother's  village,  situated  on  the  hillside,  near  the  river,  at 
six  leagues  distance.  We  were  well  received  there.  This  nation 
counts  more  than  three  hundred  warriors.  Here  the  men  culti- 
vate the  ground,  hunt,  and  fish,  as  well  as  the  Taencas,  and  their 
manners  are  the  same." 

In  the  account  of  the  "  Taking  Possession  of  Louisiana,"  in  the 
Historical  Collection  of  Louisiana,  is  the  following,  showing  how 
populous  was  the  Natchez  District :  "  On  the  20th  of  March  we 
arrived  at  the  Taencas.  Mr.  Tonti  passed  the  night  at  one  of  their 
villages  where  there  were  seven  hundred  men  carrying  arms  as- 
sembled in  the  place.  Here  again  a  peace  was  concluded.  A 
peace  was  also  made  with  the  Koroas,  whose  chief  came  there 
from  the  principal  village  of  the  Koroas,  two  leagues  distant  from 
the  Natchez.  The  two  chiefs  accompanied  La  Salle  to  the  banks 
of  the  river.  Here  the  Koroa  chief  embarked  with  him,  to  con- 
duct him  to  his  village,  where  peace  was  again  concluded  with 
this  nation,  which,  besides  the  five  other  villages  of  which  it  is 
composed,  is  allied  to  nearly  forty  others." 

Iberville  visited  the  Natchez  Indians  in  April,  1700,  of  which 
Penicaut  speaks  thus  :  "  Upon  leaving  the  village  of  the  Oumas  we 
kept  on  our  upward  route  fifteen  leagues  above.  The  river  here 
is  divided  into  three  channels,  forming  two  islands  about  half  a 
league  in  length,  and  one  league  above  there  we  coasted  along  on 
the  right  hand  (east)  side,  where  the  banks  are  of  a  prodigious 
height  (Ellis  Cliffs).  At  the  head  of  these  bluffs  is  a  small  river 
(St.  Catharine)  that  comes  from  a  village  four  leagues  distant  and 
one  league  back  from  the  river.  We  landed  in  order  to  visit  the 
village,  where  we  were  perfectly  well  received.  These  Indians  are 
called  the  Natchez,  and  are  the  most  civilized  of  all  the  nations. 
They  were  very  kind  and  obliging  to  Mr.  Iberville  and  his  officers, 
who  had  arrived  there  on  the  5th  of  March,  and  concluded  a  treaty 
of  peace.  They  chanted  the  calumet  of  peace  during  three  days, 
at  the  end  of  which  we  departed,  laden  with  game  and  poultry. 

The  Natchez  inhabited  one  of  the  most  beautiful  countries  in 
Louisiana.  It  lies  about  a  league  back  from  the  Mississippi,  and 
is  embellished  with  magnificent  and  natural  scenery,  traversed 
with  hills,  covered  with  a  splendid  growth  of  odoriferous  trees  and 
plants,  and  watered  with  cool  and  limpid  streams.  After  irrigat- 
ing the  plains  they  unite  in  two  branches,  which  encircle  the  vil- 
lages, and  finally  form  a  small  river  which  flows  over  a  gravelly 
bottom,  and,  after  meandering  two  leagues  through  a  beautifully 
undulating  country,  falls  into  the  Mississippi. 

All  the  pleasures  of  a  refined  society  are  observed  by  the  great 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF.    AMERICA.  209 

nobles.  They  have  none  of  the  rude  manners  of  the  surrounding 
nations,  and  possess  all  the  comforts  of  life.  This  nation  is  com- 
posed of  thirty  villages,  but  the  one  we  visited  was  the  largest, 
because  it  contained  the  dwelling  of  the  great  chief,  whom  they 
call  the  sun,  which  means  noble.  The  men  and  women  are  well- 
made,  and  appropriately  clothed.  The  women — among  whom 
are  many  very  beautiful — dress  in  white  linen  robes,  which  extend 
from  their  shoulders  to  their  ankles,  similar  in  make  to  the 
Adrienne,  worn  by  French  ladies.  They  manufacture  it  from  a 
species  of  plant  and  the  inner  bark  of  the  young  mulberry. 

The  men  clothe  themselves  in  deerskins*  (dressed),  from  which 
they  make  a  kind  of  skirt,  or  jacket,  descending  to  their  knees ; 
from  thence  to  their  ankles  they  wear  leggings.  Their  language 
is  soft  and  better  modulated  than  their  neighbors.  The  dress  of 
the  girls  is  different  from  that  of  the  women,  for  they  are  only 
clad  in  a  species  of  skirt,  fastened  around  the  waist,  after  the 
manner  of  our  French  women,  who  only  wear  petticoats.  The 
skirts  worn  by  the  girls  are  sewn  with  fine  white  thread,  and 
only  cover  their  nakedness  from  their  waist  down  to  their  knees. 
They  are  fastened  with  two  strings,  with  tassels  at  the  end  of  each. 
The  front  is  ornamented  with  fringe.  This  garment  is  worn  by 
the  girls  until  the  period  of  puberty,  when  they  assume  the 
woman's  garment.  They  are  very  courteous  and  obliging,  and 
fond  of  the  French.  It  was  really  charming  to  us  to  behold  them 
dancing  at  their  feasts,  arrayed  in  their  beautiful  and  highly  orna- 
mented skirts,  and  the  women  in  their  neat  white  robes.  Their 
heads  are  enveloped  in  long  black  hair,  which  falls  gracefully  to 
their  waists,  and  in  many  instances  down  to  their  ankles. 

Their  dances  are  very  graceful.  The  men  dance  with  the 
women,  and  the  boys  with  the  girls.  The  quadrilles  are  always 
composed  of  twenty  or  thirty  persons,  with  an  equal  number  of 
boys  and  girls.  It  is  not  permitted  to  a  married  man  to  dance 
with  a  girl,  nor  a  boy  with  a  married  woman.  After  having  lighted 
two  large  torches,  cut  from  some  old  pine' tree,  one  is  placed  near 
the  cabin  of  the  chief  and  the  other  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 

*  Deerskins,  when  dressed  by  the  Indians,  are  exactly  like  the  chamois  skins 
sold  by  the  druggists.  It  was  the  clothing  of  the  pioneers.  About  the  year 
1831  I  saw  at  the  Indian  Queen  Hotel,  at  Philadelphia,  the  wife  of  a  Cherokee 
chief,  Mclntosh  (I  believe).  Her  dress  was  of  buckskin,  neatly  ornamented 
with  beads.  It  fitted  closely  to  her  bust  and  showed  its  form  distinctly,  and 
from  the  waist  fell  loosely  to  just  below  the  knees,  where  it  terminated  in  an 
ornamented  fringe.  Her  legs  were  enclosed  in  buckskin  leggings,  ornamented 
at  the  sides,  outward.  Her  feet  were  shod  with  ornamented  moccasins,  extend- 
ing above  the  ankles.  She  was  medium  size,  beautiful  in  figure,  face  and  form. 

14 


210  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

great  square,  when,  towards  sundown,  the  master  of  ceremonies 
enters,  followed  by  thirty  couples,  in  regular  order,  who  commence 
the  dance  at  the  tap  of  the  drum  and  the  sound  of  the  voices  of 
the  spectators.  Each  dances  in  turn  until  midnight,  when  the 
married  men  and  women  retire,  and  give  place  to  the  young  peo- 
ple, who  keep  up  the  dance  until  morning.  This  dance  has  a 
considerable  resemblance  to  our  French  cotillion,  with  this  differ- 
ence, that  when  a  youth  has  danced  with  the  girl  at  his  side,  he  is 
permitted  to  conduct  her  without  the  village  into  one  of  the  groves 
on  the  prairies,  where  he  whispers  sweet  tales  of  love  till  each 
grow  wearied.  They  then  return  to  the  village,  and  continue 
dancing  until  daylight. 

When  an  agreement  is  entered  into  between  two  young  people 
they  go  together  into  the  woods,  and  while  the  young  man  is 
hunting,  the  young  woman  constructs  a  cabin  from  the  boughs 
and  limbs  of  trees  and  foliage,  and  kindles  a  fire  close  by.  If  the 
young  man  has  killed  in  the  chase  a  buffalo  or  deer,  he  brings  one- 
quarter  to  the  cabin,  and  afterward  they  live  together  for  the  re- 
mainder of  life.  They  roast  a  piece,  which  they  eat  for  supper, 
and  upon  the  morrow  carry  the  rest  to  the  house  of  the  girl's  father 
and  mother  in  the  village,  notifying  them  of  their  intention,  and  at 
the  same  time  dividing  with  them  their  game.  After  they  dine 
together  the  husband  takes  his  wife  to  his  own  cabin,  and  from 
that  time  she  is  prohibited  from  mingling  in  the  dance  with  the 
boys  and  girls,  or  having  intercourse  with  any  other  than  her  hus- 
band. She  is  obliged  to  work  within  doors,  and  her  husband  may 
repudiate  her  if  he  thinks  her  unfaithful,  unless  she  has  presented 
him  with  a  child. 

The  Great  Chief  orders  the  feasts,  which  usually  continue  eight 
or  ten  days.  They  generally  take  place  when  the  chief  is  in  want 
of  any  provisions  or  merchandise,  such  as  flour,  bacon,  beans  and 
other  things,  which  are  brought  and  placed  at  the  door  of  his 
cabin,  upon  the  last  day  of  the  feast.  He  has  jurisdiction  over 
all  the  villages,  and  sends  his  orders  to  them  by  two  messengers, 
whom  he  calls  Ouchil-tichou.  The  house  of  the  Great  Chief  is  of 
great  extent,  and  can  hold  as  many  as  four  thousand  persons,*  over 
whom  his  power  is  as  absolute  as  a  king.  The  people  are  not  al- 
lowed to  approach  him  too  closely,  and  must  not  address  him 
nearer  than  four  paces.  His  bed  is  on  the  right  side  of  his  cabin, 
composed  of  mats  of  very  fine  canes,  across  which  is  placed  a 
bolster  of  feathers.  The  skins  of  deer  are  used  for  covering  it 

*  This  is  probably  a  mistake. 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF    AMERICA.  211 

in  the  summer,  and  those  of  bear  and  buffalo  in  winter.  His  wife 
is  the  only  person  who  has  the  right  to  eat  and  sleep  with  him. 

When  he  arises  from  his  bed,  his  relatives  approach,  and  with 
uplifted  arms  utter  frightful  cries,  but  he  does  not  even  deign  to 
notice  them.  The  Great  Chief  of  a  noble  family  can  only  marry 
with  a  woman  of  plebeian  race,  but  the  children  born  of  this  union, 
whether  boys  or  girls,  are  noble. 

It  happened,  during  our  visit,  that  the  Great  Female  Sun  died, 
and  we  were  witnesses  of  her  funeral  obsequies,  which  were  of  the 
most  tragical  character  that  can  be  imagined.  She  was  the  Great 
Sun  in  her  own  right,  and  being  dead,  her  husband,  who  was  not 
of  the  noble  family,  was  strangled  by  her  eldest  son,  so  that  he 
might  bear  her  company  to  the  great  village  whither  she  had  gone. 
On  the  outside  of  the  cabin  where  she  died  they  placed  all  her 
effects  on  a  sort  of  bier  or  triumphal  car,  upon  which  was  placed 
her  body  as  well  as  that  of  her  husband.  Afterwards  they  brought 
and  placed  twelve  small  children  upon  it,  whom  they  had  stran- 
gled. These  children  were  brought  by  their  fathers  and  mothers, 
by  the  order  of  the  eldest  son  of  the  Great  Female  Sun,  who  had 
the  right,  as  her  successor  and  as  Great  Chief,  to  put  to  death  as 
many  persons  as  he  pleased  to  honor  the  funeral  of  his  mother. 
Fourteen  other  scaffolds  were  afterward  erected  and  decorated 
with  branches  of  trees  and  paintings  upon  pieces  of  linen.  On 
each  scaffold  they  placed  one  of  those  they  had  strangled,  to 
accompany  the  deceased  to  the  other  world,  and  these  were  sur- 
rounded by  their  relatives,  dressed  in  fine  white  robes.  They  then 
formed  a  procession  and  marched  to  the  great  square  in  front  of 
the  Great  Temple  and  commenced  to  dance.  At  the  end  of  four 
days  they  began  the  ceremony  of  the  march  of  death,  the  fathers 
and  mothers  of  the  strangled  children  holding  them  up  in  their 
arms.  The  eldest  of  these  unfortunate  children  did  not  appear 
to  be  over  three  years  of  age.  The  fourteen  other  victims  destined 
to  be  strangled  were  also  marched  in  front  of  the  Great  Temple. 

The  chiefs  and  relatives  of  those  who  were  destined  to  be  stran- 
gled, with  their  hair  cut  off,  began  their  bowlings,  while  those  who 
were  destined  to  die  kept  on  dancing  and  marching  around  the 
cabin  of  the  deceased,  two  by  two,  until  it  was  set  on  fire.  The 
fathers,  who  carried  their  strangled  children  in  their  arms,  marched 
four  paces  apart  from  each  other,  and  at  the  distance  of  about  ten 
paces  threw  them  upon  the  ground  before  the  Great  Temple,  and 
commenced  dancing  around  them.  When  they  deposited  the 
body  of  the  Great  Female  Sun  in  the  temple,  the  fourteen  victims, 
who  stood  before  the  door  of  the  temple,  were  undressed,  and, 


212  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

while  seated  on  the  ground,  a  cord  with  a  noose  was  passed 
around  the  neck  of  each  and  a  deerskin  thrown  over  their  heads. 
The  relatives  of  the  deceased  then  stood  to  the  right  and  left 
of  each  victim,  taking  hold  of  the  end  of  the  cord  around  their 
necks,  and  at  a  given  signal  they  pulled  until  their  victim  was 
dead.  The  bones  of  the  victims  who  had  been  strangled  were 
afterwards  deprived  of  the  flesh,  and,  when  dried,  were  put  into 
baskets  and  placed  in  the  temple,*  considering  it  an  honor  and 
special  privilege  to  have  been  sacrificed  and  placed  there  with  the 
Great  Female  Sun.  The  barbarous  custom  of  sacrificing  their  chil- 
dren to  the  Suns  was  kept  up  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  French 
missionaries  to  put  a  stop  to  it. 

The  female  posterity  of  the  Suns  always  enjoy  the  privilege  of 
their  rank.  The  male  and  female  of  the  Suns  never  intermarry. 
Their  nobility  ceases  at  the  seventh  generation  ;  they  make  it 
hereditary  only  in  the  female  line.  Their  form  of  government  is 
despotic.  The  whole  nation  is  divided  into  nobles  and  common 
people  called  stinkards  (miche-miche-quipy).  They  each  have  a  lan- 
guage peculiar  to  themselves,  that  of  the  nobles  being  much  purer 
and  more  copious.  The  Great  Sun  is  the  absolute  master  of  the 
lives  and  property  of  the  whole  nation.  The  houses  of  the  Suns 
are  built  upon  mounds,  and  are  distinguished  from  each  other  by 
their  size.  The  mound  upon  which  the  Greater  Sun  is  built  is 
larger  than  the  rest,  and  the  sides  of  it  are  steeper. 

The  temple  in  the  village  of  the  Great  Sun  is  about  thirty  feet 
high  and  forty-eight  feet  in  circumference,  with  the  walls  eight 
feet  thick,  and  covered  with  a  matting  of  cane,  in  which  they 
keep  up  a  perpetual  fire.  The  wood  used  is  of  oak  or  hickory, 
stripped  of  its  bark,  and  eight  feet  long.  Guards  are  appointed 
alternately  to  watch  the  temple  and  keep  up  the  sacred  fire ;  and 
if  by  accident  the  fire  should  go  out,  they  break  the  heads  of  the 
guards  with  the  wooden  clubs  they  keep  in  the  temple.  At  each 
new  moon  an  offering  of  bread  and  flowers  is  made,  which  is  for 
the  use  of  those  who  guard  it.  Every  morning  and  evening  the 
Great  Sun  and  his  wife  enter  it  to  worship  the  idols  of  wood  and 
stone. 

Dupratz  says:  I  shall  be  more  full  in  speaking  of  the  Nat- 
chez, a  populous  nation  among  whom  I  lived  the  space  of  eight 
years,  and  whose  sovereign,  the  chief  of  war,  and  the  chief  of  the 
keepers  of  the  temple,  were  among  my  most  intimate  friends. 
Besides,  their  manners  were  more  civilized,  their  manner  of  think- 

*  This  confirms  what  Gareelasso  says,  in  this  respect,  of  the  Temple  of  Tal- 
meco  at  Cofaciqui. 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF    AMERICA.  213 

ing  more  just  and  fuller  of  sentiment,  their  customs  more  reason- 
able, and  their  ceremonies  more  natural  and  serious,  on  all  which 
accounts  they  were  eminently  distinguished  above  the  other 
nations.  . 

Their  language  is  easy  in  pronunciation  and  expressive  in 
terms.  The  natives,  like  the  orientals,  speak  much  in  figurative 
style — the  Natchez  in  particular,  more  than  any  other  people  of 
Louisiana.*  They  have  two  languages,  that  of  the  nobles  and  that 
of  the  people,  and  both  are  copious.f 

From  my  conversation  with  the  chief  of  the  guardians  of  the 
temple,  I  discovered  that  they  acknowledged  a  Supreme  Being, 
whom  they  called  Coyocop-Chill — the  spirit  infinitely  great.  The  word 
Chill  signifies  the  most  superlative  degree  of  perfection.  God, 
according  to  the  definition  of  the  guardian  of  the  temple,  was  so 
great  and  so  powerful  that  in  comparison  to  him  all  other  kings 
were  as  nothing ;  he  had  made  all  that  we  see,  all  that  we  can 
see,  and  all  that  we  cannot  see ;  he  was  so  good  that  he  could 
not  do  ill  to  any  one,  even  if  he  had  a  mind  to  it.  They  believed 
that  God  had  made  all  things  by  his  will,  that  nevertheless  the 
little  spirits,  who  are  his  servants,  might,  by  his  order,  have  made 
many  excellent  works  in  the  universe,  which  we  admire;  but  that 
God  himself  had  formed  man  with  his  own  hands. 

The  guardian  added  that  these  spirits  were  always  present  before 
God,  ready  to  execute  his  pleasure  with  an  extreme  diligence ; 
that  the  air  was  filled  with  other  spirits,  some  good,  some  wicked  ; 
and  that  the  latter  had  a  chief  who  was  more  wicked  than  them 
all ;  that  God  had  found  him  so  wicked  that  he  had  bound  him 
forever,  so  that  the  other  spirits  of  the  air  no  longer  did  so  much 
harm,  especially  when  they  were  by  prayers  entreated  not  to  do 
it ;  for  it  is  one  of  the  religious  customs  of  these  people  to  invoke 
the  spirits  of  the  air  for  rain  or  fair  weather,  according  as  each  is 
needed.  I  have  seen  the  Great  Sun  fast  for  nine  days  together, 
eating  nothing  but  corn — maize — without  meat  or  fish,  drinking 
nothing  but  water,  and  abstaining  from  the  company  of  his  wives 
during  the  whole  time.  He  underwent  this  rigorous  fast  out  of 
complaisance  to  some  Frenchmen,  who  had  been  complaining  that 
it  had  not  been  raining  for  a  long  time.  These  inconsiderate  per- 
sons had  not  remarked  that,  notwithstanding  the  want  of  rain,  the 


*  Louisiana  at  that  time,  1717,  embraced  a  vast  extent  of  country,  nearly  the 
whole  of  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  valleys. 

f  Different  words  are  used  to  express  the  same  idea  in  speaking  to  a  noble  and 
in  speaking  to  a  plebeian.  With  the  Mexicans  it  was  the  same  custom. 


214  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

fruits  of  the  earth  had  not  suffered,  as  the  dews  are  so  plentiful 
in  summer  as  to  fully  supply  that  deficiency.* 

The  guardian  of  the  temple  having  told  me  that  God  had  made 
man  with  his  own,  hands,  I  asked  him  if  he  knew  how  that  was 
done.  He  answered,  "  that  God  had  kneaded  some  clay,  such  as 
that  which  potters  use,  and  had  made  it  into  a  little  man ;  and 
that,  after  having  examined  it,  and  found  it  well  formed,  he  blew 
upon  his  work,  and  forthwith  that  little  man  had  life,  grew,  acted, 
walked,  and  found  himself  a  man  perfectly  well  shaped."  As  he 
made  no  mention  of  the  women,  I  asked  him  how  he  believed  she 
was  made.  He  told  me,  "  that  probably  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  men ;  that  their  ancient  speech  made  no  mention  of  any  differ- 
ence, only  told  them  that  the  man  was  made  first,  and  was  the 
strongest  and  most  courageous,  because  he  was  to  be  the  head  and 
support  of  the  woman,  who  was  made  to  be  his  companion. ''f 

I  next  proceeded  to  ask  him  who  had  taught  them  to  build  a 
temple ;  whence  had  they  their  eternal  fire,  which  they  preserved 
with  so  much  care,  and  who  was  the  person  who  first  instituted 
their  feasts.  He  replied :  "  A  great  number  of  years  ago  there 
appeared  among  us  a  man  and  his  wife,  who  came  down  from  the 
sun. |  Not  that  they  believed  that  the  Sun  had  a  wife  who  bore 
him  children,  or  that  these  were  the  descendants  of  the  Sun,  but 
that  when  they  first  appeared  among  us  they  were  so  bright  and  lu- 
minous §  that  we  had  no  difficulty  to  believe  that  they  came  down 
from  the  sun.  This  man  told  us  that  having  seen  from  on  high 
that  we  did  not  govern  ourselves  well,  that  we  had  no  master,  that 
each  of  us  had  presumption  enough  to  think  himself  capable  of 
governing  others,  while  he  could  not  even  conduct  himself,  he  had 
thought  fit  to  come  down  among  us  to  teach  us  to  live  better. 

*  The  dews  are  so  great  in  that  latitude  that  they  drip  from  the  leaves  of  the 
cotton-plant. 

f  The  religious  faith  of  a  nation  is  indicative  of  its  civilization  and  intelli- 
gence. Compare  the  present  religious  faiths,  and  even  religious  sects  of  a  nation, 
and  see  their  marked  difference  in  intelligence  and  civil  progress. 

|  The  Indians  believed  the  Spaniards  descended  from  the  Sun,  called  them 
fades,  the  word  to  express  gods;  and  so  in  the  origin  of  the  tradition  of  a  nation, 
it  is  some  more  civilized  and  enlightened  being  who  introduces  their  religion, 
and  this  religion  has  always  the  divine  sanction  in  order  to  be  binding  on  the 
people,  who  blindly  submit  to  superior  and  mysterious  powers,  while  they  con- 
temn the  wisest  of  their  own. 

$  This  bright  and  luminous  appearance  may  have  been  caused  by  the  brilliant 
armor  they  wore.  When  Alexander  leaped  from  the  wall  of  a  city  of  the  Malli 
among  his  enemies,  the  brilliancy  of  his  armor,  in  his  descent,  astonished  his 
enemies  and  caused  them  to  recoil. 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF    AMERICA.  215 

He  moreover  told  us  that,  in  order  to  live  in  peace  among  our- 
selves and  to  please  the  Supreme  Spirit,  we  must  indispensably 
observe  the  following  points :  We  must  never  kill  any  one  but  in 
defence  of  our  own  lives ;  we  must  never  know  any  other  women 
besides  our  own  ;  we  must  never  take  anything  that  belonged  to 
another;  we  must  never  lie  nor  get  drunk;  we  must  not  be  avari- 
cious, but  must  give  liberally  and  with  joy  a  part  of  what  we  have 
to  others  who  are  in  want,  and  generously  share  our  substance 
with  those  who  are  in  need  of  it. 

The  words  of  this  man  deeply  affected  us,  for  he  spoke  them 
with  authority,  and  he  procured  the  respect  even  of  the  old  men 
themselves,  though  he  reprehended  them  as  freely  as  the  rest.  The 
next  day  we  offered  to  acknowledge  him  as  our  sovereign.  He,  at 
first,  refused,  saying  that  he  should  not  be  obeyed  and  that  the 
disobedient  would  infallibly  die,  but  at  length  he  accepted  the 
offer  that  was  made  him,  on  the  following  conditions: 

That  we  would  go  and  inhabit  another  country  better  than  that 
in  which  we  were,  which  he  would  show  us ;  that  we  would  after- 
wards live  conformable  to  the  instructions  he  had  given  us ;  that 
we  would  promise  never  to  acknowledge  any  other  sovereign  but 
him  and  his  descendants ;  that  the  nobility  should  be  perpetuated 
by  the  women  in  this  manner  :  If  I,  said  he,  have  male  and  female 
children,  they  being  brothers  and  sisters  cannot  marry  together ; 
the  eldest  boy  may  choose  a  wife  from  among  the  people,  but  his 
sons  shall  be  only  nobles ;  the  children  of  the  elder  girl,  on  the 
other  hand,  shall  be  princes  and  princesses  and  her  eldest  son  be 
sovereign,  but  her  eldest  daughter  be  mother  of  the  next  sov- 
ereign, even  though  she  should  marry  one  of  the  common  people ; 
and  in  defect  of  the  eldest  daughter,  the  next  female  relation  to 
the  person  reigning  shall  be  the  mother  of  the  future  sovereign  ; 
the  sons  of  the  sovereign  and  princes  shall  lose  their  rank,  but  the 
daughters  shall  preserve  theirs. 

He  then  told  us  that  in  order  to  preserve  the  excellent  precepts 
he  had  given  us,  it  was  necessary  to  build  a  temple,  into  which  it 
should  be  lawful  for  none  but  the  princes  and  princesses  to  enter, 
to  speak  to  the  Spirit,*  that  in  the  temple  they  should  eternally 

*  In  regard  to  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  :  "  The  people  were  never  to  go  into 
it ;  only  the  priests  and  such  as  waited  on  them,  and  that  at  stated  times,  morn- 
ing and  evening,  to  light  the  lamps  and  offer  bread  and  perfumes.  The  high 
priest  was  the  only  person  who  entered  into  the  sanctuary  where  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant  stood,  nor  did  he  go  in  oftener  than  once  a  year." 

Before  the  temple  in  the  great  court  was  the  altar  for  holocaust,  or  whole  burnt- 
offerings,  that  is  to  say  a  platform  thirty  cubits  square  and  fifteen  high.  The 
priest  went  up  to  it  by  an  easy  ascent  without  steps,  to  place  the  wood  and  victims 
in  order. 


216  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

preserve  a  fire,  which  he  would  bring  down  from  the  sun,  from 
whence  he  himself  had  descended ;  that  the  wood  with  which  the 
fire  was  supplied  should  be  pure  wood  without  bark ;  that  eight 
wise  men  of  the  nation  should  be  chosen  for  guarding  the  fire 
night  and  day;  that  these  eight  men  should  have  a  chief,  who 
should  see  them  do  their  duty  ;  and  that  if  any  of  them  failed  in 
it,  he  should  be  put  to  death.  He  likewise  ordered  another  temple 
to  be  built  in  a  distant  part  of  our  nation,  which  was  then  very 
populous,  and  the  eternal  fire  to  be  kept  there  also,  that  in  case 
it  should  be  extinguished  in  the  one  it  might  be  brought  from  the 
other  ;  in  which  case,  until  it  was  again  lighted,  the  nation  should 
be  afflicted  with  a  great  mortality. 

Our  nation  having  consented  to  these  conditions  he  agreed  to  be 
our  sovereign,  and  in  presence  of  all  the  people  he  brought  down 
the  fire  from  the  sun  upon  some  wood  of  the  walnut  tree  which  he 
had  prepared,  which  fire  was  deposited  in  both  the  temples.  He 
lived  a  long  time  and  saw  his  children's  children.  To  conclude,  he 
instituted  our  feasts  such  as  you  see  them. 

The  Natchez  have  neither  sacrifices,  libations,  nor  offerings ; 
their  whole  worship  consists  in  preserving  the  eternal  fire,  and  that 
the  Great  Sun  watches  over  with  peculiar  attention.  The  Sun,  who 
reigned  when  I  was  in  the  country,  was  extremely  solicitous  about 
it,  and  visited  the  temple  every  day.  His  vigilance  had  been 
awakened  by  a  terrible  hurricane,  which  some  years  before  had 
happened  in  the  country. 

The  Natchez  are  brought  up  in  a  most  perfect  submission  to 
their  sovereign.  The  authority  which  their  princes  exercise  over 
them  is  absolutely  despotic,  and  can  be  compared  to  nothing  but 
that  of  the  first  Ottoman  emperors.  Like  these,  the  Great  Sun  is 
absolute  master  of  the  lives  and  estates  of  his  subjects,  which  he 
disposes  of  at  his  pleasure,  his  will  being  the  only  law  ;  but  he  has 
this  singular  advantage  over  the  Ottoman  princes,  that  he  has  no 
occasion  to  fear  any  seditious  tumult,  or  any  conspiracy  against  his 
person.  If  he  orders  a  man,  guilty  of  a  capital  crime,  to  be  put  to 
death,  the  criminal  neither  supplicates,  nor  procures  intercession 
to  be  made  for  his  life,  nor  attempts  to  run  away.  The  order  of 
the  sovereign  is  executed  on  the  spot  and  nobody  murmurs.  But 
however  absolute  the  authority  of  the  Great  Sun  may  be,  and 
although  a  number  of  warriors  and  others  attach  themselves  to 
him,  to  serve  him,  to  follow  him  wherever  he  goes,  and  to  hunt  for 
him,  yet  he  raises  no  stated  impositions ;  and  what  he  receives 
from  these  people  appears  given,  not  so  much  as  a  right  due  as  a 
voluntary  homage  and  a  testimony  of  their  love  and  gratitude. 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF    AMERICA.  217 

The  Natchez  begin  their  year  in  the  month  of  March,  and  divide 
it  into  thirteen  moons.  At  every  moon  they  celebrate  a  feast, 
which  takes  its  name  from  the  principal  fruits  reaped  in  the  pre- 
ceding moon,  or  from  the  animals  which  are  then  usually  hunted. 
I  shall  give  an  account  of  one  or  two  of  these  feasts  as  concisely 
as  I  can. 

The  first  moon  is  called  that  of  the  Deer,  and  begins  their  new 
year,  which  is  celebrated  by  them  with  universal  joy,  and  is  at 
the  same  time  an  anniversary  memorial  of  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting events  in  their  history.  In  former  times  a  Great  Sun,  upon 
hearing  a  sudden  tumult  in  his  village,  had  left  his  hut  in  a  great 
hurry  in  order  to  appease  it,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  ene- 
mies, but  was  quickly  after  rescued  by  his  warriors,  who  repulsed 
the  invaders  and  put  them  to  flight.  In  order  to  preserve  the  re- 
membrance of  this  honorable  exploit  the  warriors  divide  them- 
selves into  two  bodies,  distinguished  from  each  other  by  the  color 
of  their  feathers.  One  of  these  bodies  represent  the  invaders,  and, 
after  raising  loud  shouts  and  cries,  seize  the  Great  Sun,  who  comes 
out  of  his  hut  undressed,  and  rubbing  his  eyes,  as  though  he  were 
just  awake.  The  Great  Sun  defends  himself  intrepidly  with  a 
wooden  tomahawk,  and  lays  a  great  many  of  his  enemies  upon 
the  ground,  without,  however,  giving  them  a  single  blow,  for  he 
only  seems  to  touch  them  with  his  weapon.  In  the  meantime  the 
other  party  comes  out  of  their  ambuscade,  attacks  the  invaders, 
and,  after  fighting  with  them  for  some  time,  rescue  their  prince  and 
drive  them  into  a  wood,  which  is  represented  by  an  arbor  made 
of  canes.  During  the  whole  time  of  the  skirmish  the  parties  keep 
up  the  war-cry,  or  the  cry  of  terror,  as  each  of  them  seem  to  be 
victors  or  vanquished.  The  Great  Sun  is  brought  back  to  his  hut 
in  a  triumphal  manner,  and  the  old  men,  women  and  children, 
who  were  spectators  of  the  engagement,  rend  the  sky  with  their 
joyful  acclamations.  The  Great  Sun  continues  in  his  hut  about 
half  an  hour,  to  repose  himself  after  his  great  fatigues,  which  are 
such  that  an  actor  of  thirty  years  of  age  would  with  difficulty 
have  supported  them,  and  he,  however,  when  I  saw  this  feast,  was 
above  ninety.  He  then  makes  his  appearance  again  to  the  peo- 
ple, who  salute  him  with  loud  acclamations,  which  cease  upon  his 
proceeding  towards  the  temple.  When  he  is  arrived  in  the  middle 
of  the  court  before  the  temple  he  makes  several  gesticulations, 
then  stretches  out  his  arms  horizontally,  and  remains  in  that  posi- 
tion motionless  as  a  statue  for  half  an  hour.  He  is  then  relieved 
by  the  master  of  the  ceremonies,  who  places  himself  in  the  same 
attitude,  and  half  an  hour  after  is  relieved  by  the  great  chief  of 


218  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

war,  who  remains  as  long  in  the  same  posture.  When  this  cere- 
mony is  over  the  Great  Sun,  who  when  he  was  relieved  had  re- 
turned to  his  hut,  appears  again  before  the  people  in  the  orna- 
ments of  his  dignity,  is  placed  upon  his  throne,  which  is  a  large 
stool  with  four  feet,  cut  out  of  one  piece  of  wood,  has  a  fine 
buffalo-skin  thrown  over  his  shoulders  and  several  furs  laid  upon 
his  feet,  and  receives  various  presents  from  the  women,  who  all 
the  time  continue  to  express  their  joy  by  their  shouts  and  accla- 
mations. Strangers  are  then  invited  to  dine  with  the  Great  Sun, 
and  in  the  evening  there  is  a  dance  in  his  hut,  which  is  about 
thirty  feet  square  and  twenty  feet  high,  and,  like  the  temple,  is 
built  upon  a  mound  of  earth  about  eight  feet  high  and  sixty  feet 
over  on  the  surface. 

The  seventh  is  that  of  Maize  or  Great  Corn.  This  feast  is  beyond 
doubt  the  most  solemn  of  all.  It  principally  consists  in  eating  in 
common,  and  in  a  religious  manner,  of  new  corn  which  had  been 
sown  expressly  with  that  design,  with  suitable  ceremonies.  This 
corn  is  sown  upon  a  spot  of  ground  never  before  cultivated,  which 
ground  is  dressed  and  prepared  by  the  warriors  alone,  who  also 
are  the  only  persons  that  sow  the  corn,  weed  it,  reap  it,  and  gather 
it.  When  this  corn  is  nearly  ripe  the  warriors  fix  upon  a  place 
proper  for  the  general  feast,  and  close  adjoining  to  that  they  form 
a  round  granary,  the  bottom  and  sides  of  which  are  of  cane.  This 
they  fill  with  the  corn,  and  when  they  have  finished  the  harvest 
and  covered  the  granary  they  acquaint  the  Great  Sun,  who  appoints 
the  day  for  the  general  feast.  Some  days  before  the  feast  they 
build  huts,  for  the  Great  Sun  and  for  all  the  other  families,  around 
the  granary,  that  of  the  Great  Sun  being  raised  upon  a  mound  of 
earth  about  two  feet  high.  On  the  feast  day  the  whole  nation  set 
out  from  their  villages  at  sun-rising,  leaving  behind  only  the  aged 
and  infirm,  who  are  unable  to  travel,  and  a  few  warriors  who  are 
to  carry  the  Great  Sun  on  a  litter  upon  their  shoulders.  The  seat 
of  this  litter  is  covered  with  several  deerskins,  and  to  its  four  sides 
are  fastened  four  bars,  which  cross  each  other,  and  are  supported 
by  eight  men,  who  at  every  hundred  paces  transfer  their  burden  to 
eight  other  men,  and  thus  successively  transport  it  to  the  place 
where  the  feast  is  celebrated,  which  may  be  nearly  two  miles  from 
the  village.  About  nine  o'clock  the  Great  Sun  comes  out  of  his 
hut  dressed  in  the  ornaments  of  his  dignity,  and  being  placed  on 
his  litter,  which  has  a  canopy  at  the  head  formed  of  flowers,  he  is 
carried  in  a  few  minutes  to  the  sacred  granary,  shouts  of  joy  echo- 
ing on  all  sides.  Before  he  alights  he  makes  the  tour  of  the  whole 
place  deliberately,  and  when  he  comes  before  the  corn  he  salutes 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF   AMERICA.  219 

thrice  with  these  words,  hoo,  hoo,  hoo,  lengthened  and  pronounced 
respectfully.  The  salutation  is  repeated  by  the  whole  nation,  who 
pronounce  the  word  hoo  nine  times  distintly,  and  at  the  ninth  time 
he  alights  and  places  himself  on  his  throne. 

Immediately  after  they  light  a  fire  by  rubbing  two  pieces  of 
wood  violently  against  each  other,  and  when  everything  is  prepared 
for  dressing  the  corn  the  chief  of  war,  accompanied  by  the  warriors 
belonging  to  each  family,  presents  himself  before  the  throne,  and 
addresses  the 'Sun  in  these  words:  Speak,  for  I  hear  thee.  The 
sovereign  then  rises  up,  bows  towards  the  four  quarters  of  the 
world,  and  advancing  towards  the  granary,  lifts  his  eyes  and  hands 
to  heaven,  and  says,  "  Give  us  corn,"  upon  which  the  great  chief 
of  war,  the  princes  and  princesses,  and  all  the  men,  thank  him 
separately  by  pronouncing  the  word  hoo.  The  corn  is  then  dis- 
tributed, first  to  the  female  suns,  and  then  to  all  the  women,  who 
run  with  it  to  their  huts,  and  dress  it  with  the  utmost  dispatch. 
When  the  corn  is  dressed  in  all  the  huts,  a  plate  of  it  is  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  Great  Sun,  who  presents  it  to  the  four  quarters  of 
the  world,*  and  then  says  to  the  war  chief,  eat.  Upon  this  signal 
the  warriors  begin  to  eat  in  all  the  huts,  after  them  the  boys  of 
whatever  age,  and  last  of  all  the  women.  When  the  warriors 
have  finished  their  repast,  they  form  themselves  into  two  choirs 
before  the  huts  and  sing  war  songs  for  half  an  hour,  after  which 
the  War  Chief,  and  all  the  warriors  in  succession,  recount  their 
brave  exploits,  and  mention  in  a  boasting  manner  the  number  of 
enemies  they  have  killed.f  The  youths  are  next  allowed  to  har- 
angue, and  each  tells  in  the  best  manner  he  can,  not  what  he  has 
done,  but  what  he  intends  to  do,  and  if  his  discourse  merits  ap- 
probation he  is  answered  by  a  general  hoo;  if  not,  the  warriors 
hang  down  their  heads  and  are  silent. 

This  great  solemnity  is  concluded  with  a  general  dance  by  torch- 
light. Upwards  of  two  hundred  torches  of  dried  canes,  each  of  the 
thickness  of  a  child,  are  lighted  around  the  place,  where  the  men 
and  women  often  continue  dancing  till  daylight. 

Next  morning  no  person  is  seen  abroad  before  the  Great  Sun 
comes  out  of  his  hut,  which  is  generally  about  nine  o'clock,  and 
then  upon  a  signal  made  by  the  drum,  the  warriors  make  their 

*  This  custom  or  ceremony  is  general  among  the  Indians  of  North  America, 
especially  on  all  solemn  occasions,  as  when  smoking  the  pipe  of  peace,  in  making 
treaties,  etc.  The  chief  first  presents  the  pipe  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  world, 
gives  a  puff  of  smoke  to  each,  and  then  passes  it  to  the  next  person,  who  takes  a 
suck  or  two,  and  passes  it  on,  etc. 

f  This  ceremony  is  practiced  among  many  of  the  North  American  tribes  of 
Indians. 


220  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

appearance,  distinguished  into  two  troops  by  the  feathers  which 
they  wear  on  their 'heads.  One  of  these  troops  is  headed  by  the 
Great  Sun  and  the  other  by  the  War  Chief,  who  begin  a  new  diver- 
sion by  tossing  a  ball  stuffed  with  moss  from  the  one  to  the  other. 
The  warriors  quickly  take  part  in  the  sport,  and  a  violent  contest 
ensues,  which  of  the  two  parties  shall  drive  the  ball  to  the  hut  of 
the  opposite  chief.  The  diversion  generally  lasts  two  hours,  and 
the  victors  are  allowed  to  wear  the  feathers  of  superiority  till  the 
following  year,  or  till  the  next  time  they  play  at  ball.  After  this 
the  warriors  perform  the  war  dance,  and  last  of  all  they  go  and 
bathe. 

The  rest  of  the  day  is  employed  as  the  preceding,  for  the  feast 
holds  as  long  as  any  of  the  corn  remains.  When  it  is  all  eaten, 
the  Great  Sun  is  carried  back  in  his  litter,  and  they  all  return  to 
the  village,  after  which  he  sends  the  warriors  to  hunt  both  for 
themselves  and  him. 

The  feasts  which  I  saw  celebrated  in  the  chief  village  of  the 
Natchez,  which  is  the  residence  of  the  Great  Sun,  are  celebrated 
in  the  same  manner  in  all  the  villages  of  the  nation,  which  are  each 
governed  by  a  Sun,  who  is  subordinate  to  the  Great  Sun,  and  ac- 
knowledges his  absolute  authority. 

The  Suns  are  the  descendants  of  the  man  and  woman  who  pre- 
tended to  have  come  down  from  the  sun.  Among  other  laws  they 
gave  to  the  Natchez,  they  ordained  that  their  race  should  always 
be  distinguished  from  the  bulk  of  the  nation,  and  that  none  of 
them  should  ever  be  put  to  death  on  any  account. 

Although  all  the  people  of  Louisiana*  have  nearly  the  same 
usages  and  customs,  yet  as  any  nation  is  more  or  less  populous,  it 
has  more  or  fewer  ceremonies.  Thus,  when  the  French  first  ar- 
rived in  the  colony,  several  nations  kept  up  the  eternal  fire,  and 
observed  other  religious  ceremonies,  which  they  have  now  disused 
since  their  numbers  have  been  greatly  diminished.  Many  of  them 
still  continue  to  have  temples,  but  the  common  people  never  enter 
these,  and  no  strangers  unless  particularly  favored  by  the  nation. 
As  I  was  a  particular  friend  of  the  sovereign  of  the  Natchez,  he 
showed  me  their  temple,  which  is  about  thirty  feet  square,  and 
stands  upon  an  artificial  mount  about  eight  feet  high,  by  the 
side  of  a  small  river  (St.  Catharine).  The  mount  slopes  insensi- 
bly from  the  main  front,  which  is  nortrnvard,  but  on  the  other 
side  it  is  somewhat  steeper.  The  four  corners  of  the  temple  con- 
sist of  four  posts  about  a  foot  and  a  half  in  diameter  and  ten  feet 
high,  each  made  of  the  heart  of  the  cypress-tree,  which  is  incor- 

*  The  Louisiana  of  1717. 


CHAP.  XX.]  OF    AMERICA.  221 

ruptible.  The  side-posts  are  of  the  same  wood,  but  only  about  a 
foot  square,  and  the  walls  are  of  mud  about  nine  inches  thick, 
so  that  on  the  inside  there  is  a  recess  between  every  post.  The 
inner  space  is  divided  from  east  to  west  into  two  apartments, 
one  of  which  is  twice  as  large  as  the  other.  In  the  largest  apart- 
ment the  eternal  fire  is  kept,  and  there  is  likewise  a  table  or  altar 
in  it  about  four  feet  high,  six  feet  long,  and  two  feet  broad.  Upon 
this  table  lie  the  bones  of  the  late  Great  Sun,  in  a  coffin  of  canes 
very  neatly  made.  In  the  inner  apartment,  which  is  very  dark, 
as  it  receives  no  light  but  from  the  door  of  communication,  I  could 
meet  with  nothing  but  two  boards,  on  which  were  placed  some 
things  like  small  toys,  which  I  had  not  light  to  peruse.  The  roof 
is  in  the  form  of  a  pavilion,  and  very  neat  both  within  and  with- 
out, and  on  the  top  of  it  are  placed  three  wooden  birds  twice  as 
large  as  a  goose,  with  their  heads  turned  towards  the  east.  The 
cornice  and  side-posts  rise  above  the  earth  ten  feet  high,  and  it  is 
said  the  latter  are  as  much  sunk  in  the  ground.  Besides  the  eight 
guardians  of  the  temple,  two  of  whom  are  always  on  the  watch, 
and  the  chief  of  those  guardians,  there  also  belongs  to  the  service 
of  the  temple  a  master  of  the  ceremonies,  who  is  also  master  of 
the  mysteries ;  since,  according  to  them,  he  converses  very  famili- 
arly with  the  Spirit.  Above  all  these  persons  is  the  Great  Sun, 
who  is  at  the  same  time  chief  priest  and  sovereign  of  the  nation. 

The  temples  of  some  of  the  nations  of  Louisiana  are  very  mean, 
and  one  would  be  very  apt  to  take  them  for  the  huts  of  private  per- 
sons ;  but  to  those  who  are  acquainted  with  their  manners  they 
are  easily  distinguishable,  as  they  have  always  before  the  door  two 
posts  formed  like  the  ancient  Termini,  that  is,  having  the  upper 
part  cut  into  the  shape  of  a  man's  head.  The  door  of  the  temple, 
which  is  pretty  weighty,  is  placed  between  the  wall  and  these  two 
posts,  so  that  the  children  may  not  be  able  to  remove  it  to  go  and 
play  in  the  temple.  The  private  huts  have  also  posts  before  their 
doors,  but  these  are  never  formed  like  Termini. 

None  of  the  nations  of  Louisiana  are  acquainted  with  the  cus- 
tom of  burning  their  dead.  The  different  American  nations  have 
a  most  religious  attention  for  their  dead,  and  have  some  particular 
custom  in  respect  to  them ;  but  all  of  them  either  inter  them  or 
place  them  in  tombs,  and  carefully  carry  victuals  to  them  for  some 
time.  These  tombs  are  either  within  their  temples  or  close  ad- 
joining them  or  in  their  neighborhood.  They  are  raised  about 
three  feet  above  the  earth  and  rest  upon  four  forked  stakes  fixed 
in  the  ground.  The  tomb,  or  rather  bier,  is  about  eight  feet  long 
and  a  foot  and  a  half  broad ;  and  after  the  body  is  placed  upon  it 


222  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XX. 

a  kind  of  basket-work  of  twigs  is  woven  round  it  and  covered 
with  mud,  an  opening  being  left  at  the  head  for  placing  the  vic- 
tuals that  are  presented  to  the  dead  persons.*  When  the  body  is 
all  rotted  but  the  bones,  these  are  taken  out  of  the  tomb  and  placed 
in  a  box  of  canes,  which  is  deposited  in  the  temple.  They  usually 
weep  and  lament  for  the  dead  three  days,  but  for  those  who  are 
killed  in  war  they  make  a  much  longer  and  more  grievous  la- 
mentation. 

Among  the  Natchez  the  death  of  any  of  their  Suns  is  a  most 
fatal  event,  for  it  is  sure  to  be  attended  with  the  destruction  of  a 
great  number  of  people  of  both  sexes. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1725  the  Stung  Serpent,  who  was  the 
brother  of  the  Great  Sun,  was  seized  with  a  mortal  distemper, 
which  filled  the  whole  nation  of  the  Natchez  with  the  greatest 
consternation  and  terror,  for  the  two  brothers  had  mutually  en- 
gaged to  follow  each  other  to  the  land  of  spirits,  and  if  the  Great 
Sun  should  kill  himself  for  the  sake  of  his  brother  very  many 
people  would  likewise  be  put  to  death. 

The  death  of  the  Stung  Serpent  was  published  by  the  firing 
of  two  muskets,  which  was  answered  by  the  other  villages,  and 
immediately  cries  and  lamentations  were  heard  on  all  sides.  The 
Great  Sun  in  the  meantime  remained  inconsolable,  and  sat  bent 
forward  with  his  eyes  towards  the  ground.  In  the  evening,  while 
we  were  still  in  his  hut,  he  made  signs  to  his  favorite  wife,  who, 
in  consequence  of  that,  threw  a  pailful  of  water  on  the  fire,  and 
extinguished  it.  This  was  the  signal  for  extinguishing  all  the 
fires  of  the  nation,  and  filled  everyone  with  terrible  alarms,  as  it 
denoted  that  the  Great  Sun  was  still  resolved  to  put  himself  to 
death.  I  gently  chided  him  for  altering  his  former  resolution/}"  but 
he  answered  me  that  he  had  not,  and  desired  us  to  go  and  sleep 
securely.  We  accordingly  left  him,  but  we  took  up  our  lodging  in 
the  hut  of  his  chief  servant. 

Before  we  went  to  our  lodgings  we  entered  the  hut  of  the  de- 
ceased, and  found  him  on  his  bed  of  state,  dressed  in  his  finest 
clothes,  his  face  painted  with  vermilion,  shod  as  if  for  a  journey, 
with  his  feathered  crown  on  his  head.  To  his  bed  was  fastened 
his  arms,  which  consisted  of  a  double-barreled  gun,  a  pistol,  a 
bow,  a  quiver  full  of  arrows,  and  a  tomahawk ;  around  his  bed 
was  placed  all  the  calumets  of  peace  he  had  received  during  his 

*  In  the  accounts  of  persons  buried  in  stone  slabs,  one  end  of  the  coffin  is  not 
closed  with  a  slab.  This  may  have  been  the  outward  end,  so  that  the  relatives 
of  the  dead  might  make  offerings  to  them. 

f  He  had  promised  not  to  kill  himself. 


CHAP.  XX.J  OF    AMERICA.  223 

life;  and  on  a  pole  planted  in  the  ground  near  it  hung  a  chain 
of  forty-six  rings  of  cane,  painted  red,  to  express  the  number  of 
enemies  he  had  slain.  All  his  domestics  were  around  him,  and 
they  presented  victuals  to  him  at  the  usual  hours,  as  if  he  were 
alive.  The  company  in  his  hut  was  composed  of  his  favorite 
wife,  of  a  second  wife,  whom  he  kept  in  another  village,  of  his 
chamberlain,  of  his  physician,  his  chief  domestic,  his  pipe-bearer, 
and  some  old  women,  who  were  to  be  strangled  at  his  interment. 
To  these  victims  a  noble  woman  voluntarily  joined  herself,  resolv- 
ing, from  her  friendship  to  the  Stung  Serpent,  to  go  and  live  with 
him  in  the  land  of  spirits.  I  regretted  her  on  many  accounts,  but 
particularly  as  she  was  intimately  acquainted  with  the  virtues  of 
simples,  had  by  her  skill  saved  the  lives  of  many  of  our  people, 
and  given  me  many  useful  instructions.  After  we  had  satisfied  our 
curiosity  in  the  hut  of  the  deceased  we  retired  to  our  hut,  where 
we  spent  the  night.  But  at  daybreak  we  were  suddenly  awaked 
and  told  that  it  was  with  difficulty  the  Great  Sun  was  kept  from 
killing  himself.  We  hastened  to  his  hut,  and  upon  entering  it  I 
remarked  terror  and  dismay  painted  upon  the  countenances  of  all 
who  were  present.  I  addressed  myself  to  him,  and  chided  him 
gently  for  his  not  acting  according  to  his  former  resolution.  At 
length  he  consented  to  order  his  fire  to  be  again  lighted,  which 
was  the  signal  for  lighting  the  other  fires  of  the  nation,  and  dis- 
pelled all  their  apprehensions. 

Soon  after  the  natives  began  the  dance  of  death  and  prepared 
for  the  funeral  of  the  Stung  Serpent.  Orders  were  given  to  put 
none  to  death  on  that  occasion  but  those  who  were  in  the  hut  of 
the  deceased.  A  child,  however,  had  already  been  strangled  by 
its  father  and  mother,  which  ransomed  their  lives  upon  the  death 
of  the  Great  Sun,  and  raised  them  from  the  rank  of  Stinkards  to 
that  of  Nobles.  Those  who  were  appointed  to>die  were  conducted 
twice  a  day  and  placed  in  two  rows  before  the  temple,  where  they 
acted  over  the  scene  of  their  death,  each  accompanied  by  eight  of 
their  own  relations,  who  were  to  be  their  executioners,  and  by  that 
office  exempted  themselves  from  dying  upon  the  death  of  any  of 
the  Suns,  and  likewise  raised  them  to  the  dignity  of  men  of  rank. 

On  the  day  of  the  interment  the  master  of  the  ceremonies  ap- 
peared in  a  red-feathered  crown  which  half  encircled  his  head, 
having  a  red  staff  in  his  hand,  in  the  form  of  a  cross,  at  the  end 
of  which  hung  a  garland  of  black  feathers.  All  the  upper  part 
of  his  body  was  painted  red,  except  his  arms,  and  from  his  girdle 
to  his  knees  hung  a  fringe  of  feathers,  the  rows  of  which  were 
alternately  white  and  red.  When  he  came  before  the  hut  of  the 


224  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXI. 

deceased  he  saluted  him  with  a  great  hoo,  and  then  began  the  cry 
of  death,  in  which  he  was  followed  by  the  whole  people.  Imme- 
diately after  the  Stung  Serpent  was  brought  out  on  his  bed  of 
state,  and  was  placed  on  a  litter,  which  six  of  the  guardians  of  the 
temple  bore  on  their  shoulders.  The  procession  then  began,  the 
master  of  the  ceremonies  walking  first,  and  after  him  the  oldest 
warrior,  holding  in  one  hand  the  pole  with  the  rings  of  cane,  and 
in  the  other  the  pipe  of  war,  a  mark  of  the  dignity  of  the  deceased. 
Next  followed  the  corpse,  after  which  came  those  who  were  to  die 
at  the  interment.  The  whole  procession  went  three  times  around 
the  hut  of  the  deceased,  and  then  those  who  carried  the  corpse 
proceeded  in  a  circular  kind  of  march,  every  turn  intersecting  the 
former,  until  they  came  to  the  temple.  At  every  turn  the  dead 
child  was  thrown  by  its  parents  before  the  bearers  of  the  corpse, 
that  they  might  walk  over  it;  and  when  the  corpse  was  placed  in 
the  temple  the  victims  were  immediately  strangled.  The  Stung 
Serpent  and  his  two  wives  were  buried  in  the  same  grave  within 
the  temple ;  the  other  victims  were  interred  in  different  parts ; 
and  after  the  ceremony  they  burnt,  according  to  custom,  the  hut 
of  the  deceased. 


CHAPTER    XXL 

Tumuli — Sultzertown  Mound — Macon  Mound. 

THE  largest  and  most  remarkable  mound  in  the  Natchez  district 
is  that  at  Sultzertown  (now,  1895,  a  mere  name),  twelve  miles  east- 
wardly  of  Natchez. 

Breckenridge,  in  the  notes  to  his  "  Views  of  Louisiana,' '  has 
the  following :  u  I  have  been  favored  by  my  friend,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Schemerhorn,  with  an  account  of  a  mound  near  Sultzertown, 
Mississippi  Territory.  At  Sultzertown,  M.  T.,  six  miles  from 
Washington,  is  a  very  remarkable  Indian  mound,  and  in  every 
respect  different  from  any  I  have  seen  in  Ohio  or  Kentucky.  It 
is  not  like  those  raised  on  a  plain,  or  the  river  alluvium,  but  the 
land  around  it  is  very  uneven  or  rolling,  and  from  the  gradual  de- 
scent of  the  ground  from  its  very  base,  we  should  be  naturally  led 
to  conclude  that  here  they  had  taken  advantage  of  the  natural  po- 
sition. Instead  of  raising  with  much  labor  the  huge  pile  of  earth 
they  have  had  little  else  to  do  than,  by  levelling,  to  form  the  mound 
agreeable  to  their  designs. 

Its  form  is  a  parallelogram  whose  sides  bear  the  proportions  to 


CHAP.  XXI.]  OF    AMERICA.  225 

each  other  of  two  to  three,  and,  measured  at  the  outside  of  the  ditch, 
contains  more  than  six  acres.  The  first  elevation  is  forty  feet,  the 
area  of  which  may  contain  four  acres.  On  the  west  side  of  the  paral- 
lelogram, about  the  middle,  is  a  circular  mount  whose  diameter  is 
fifty  feet,  and  which  measures  from  the  hase  (the  ground)  eighty- 
six  feet.  Opposite  to  it,  on  the  east  end,  is  a  similar  mount 
whose  height  is  fifty  feet,  but  appears  to  have  been  considerably 
higher.  The  north  and  south  sides,  which  are  the  largest,  have  each 
three  or  four  lesser  elevations,  but  which  are  considerably  washed 
down,  the  whole  of  the  mound  having  been  frequently  plowed 
and  many  a  valuable  crop  raised  on  it,  but  was  originally,  I  sup- 
pose, at  least  ten  feet  above  the  first  elevation.  The  whole,  sur- 
rounded by  a  deep  ditch  which,  particularly  at  the  east  and  west 
sides,  is  still  very  perceptible.  On  the  south  and  north  sides  are 
passages  out  and  in.* 

That  it  was  admirably  calculated  for  a  place  of  defence  no  one 
can  doubt  who  considers  its  extent,  its  height,  its  ditch,  particu- 
larly if  palisadoed  and  military  works  were  erected  on  the  highest 
mounds  or  towers.  If  we  suppose  it  to  be  dedicated  to  purposes  of 
devotion,  and  the  people  to  be  worshippers  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 
the  different  heights  of  the  mounds  and  their  situation  would  lead 
us  to  conjecture  that  the  highest  was  consecrated  to  the  sun,  the 
next  to  the  moon,  and  the  lesser  ones  to  the  stars ;  but  when  we 
find  that  this  has  been  the  idolatry  of  some  of  the  aborigines,  is 
there  not  a  foundation  for  the  conjecture  ? 

Human  skeletons  have  been  found  in  many  of  these  mounds. 
Mr.  Griffin,  the  owner  of  the  Sultzer  mounds,  informed  me  that  his 
sons,  some  few  years  since,  had  brought  to  him  some  of  the  bones 
of  a  human  skeleton,  particularly  the  head,  and  bones  of  the  leg, 
which  they  discovered  in  this  mound  on  one  of  the  sides  where 
the  earth  had  been  washed  away.  The  skull,  he  observed,  was 
uncommonly  large,  the  bones  of  the  leg  and  thigh  much  longer 
and  larger  than  of  common  men,  and  that  he  supposed  the  skele- 
ton, which  unfortunately  was  never  taken  up  entirely,  would  have 
measured  between  six  feet  six  inches  and  seven  feet." 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  Du  Pratz  mentions  that  the  Natchez 
deposited  the  remains  of  their  Suns  or  chiefs  in  the  parts  of  the 
temple  where  was  kept  the  eternal  fire.  Might  not  this  fact  account 
for  the  finding  of  skeletons  in  some  of  them  ? 

*  Of  all  these  "elevations"  (mounds)  on  the  summit  of  the  main  mound 
there  remained,  when  I  saw  this  tumulus,  not  many  years  ago,  only  the  first, 
about  the  middle  of  the  west  side,  and  some  vestiges  of  another.  One  of  the  two 
ascents  or  "passages"  was  still  to  be  seen.  It  was  formed  as  the  "terrace" 
which  led  to  the  top  of  the  Cartersville  mound.  B.  S. 

15 


226  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXI. 

I  see  no  reason  why  we  may  not  suppose  some  of  the  largest 
of  them  to  have  been  designed  for  all  these  purposes — burial,  re- 
ligion, and  defence.  The  altars  of  religion,  however  absurd  may 
be  the  theology  of  some  nations,  superstition  will  render  dear 
to  them  as  their  lives.  If  so,  it  was  necessary  in  the  early 
ages  that  such  places  should  be  secured  and  defended.  It  is  not 
uncommon  to  read  in  history  of  nations  who  made  their  last  stand 
against  their  enemies  in  their  temples  and  around  their  altars. 

And  again  there  is  a  principle  in  human  nature  to  show  re- 
spect for  great  and  good  men  even  after  their  death.  This  has 
been  instanced  in  almost  every  nation.  I  shall  only  allude  to  the 
practice  among  the  British  of  showing  respect  to  departed  great- 
ness and  merit  in  placingtheir  monuments  in  Westminster  Abbey." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Mills  also  communicated  to  Mr.  Breckenridge  the 
following  account  of  the  Sultzertown  mound  : 

"  At  Sultzertown,  near  Washington,  in  the  Mississippi  territory, 
there  is  an  ancient  fortification.  It  is  in  the  form  of  a  parallelo- 
gram, including  three  or  four  acres  measured  at  the  base.  The 
mound  was  raised  forty-six  feet  above  the  common  level  of  the 
ground ;  near  the  middle  of  the  west  line  was  raised  a  large  mound 
of  circular  form  forty  feet  above  the  first  level  of  the  fortification, 
making  the  distance  from  the  top  of  the  mound  eighty-six  feet 
above  the  common  level  of  the  ground. 

The  top  of  this  mound  had  been  plowed  and  somewhat  worn 
down.  It  was  six  or  eight  paces  across  it.  When  the  present  pro- 
prietor took  possession  of  his  plantation,  upon  which  the  fortifica- 
tion stands,  about  twenty  years  ago,  the  country  around  was  tim- 
bered and  covered  with  /i/nebrakes.*  There  was  at  that  time  no 
timber  growing  upon  the  fortification  of  more  than  a  foot  diame- 
ter. Opposite  the  high  mound  on  the  wet>t  line,  was  another  mound  on 
the  east,  but  not  so  high,  about  fifty  feet  above  the  common  level 
of  the  ground. 

In  the  middle  of  the  north  and  south  lines  were  the  appear- 
ances of  ways  to  ascend  and  descend  the  fortification;  on  each 
side  of  these  apparent  passways  was  a  mound  rising  not  more  than 
ten  feet  above  the  fortification,  but  near  fifty  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
ground  around.  There  was  remaining  a  part  of  the  way  round  the 
base  a  ditch,  in  some  places,  at  the  time  I  saw  it,  nearly  twenty 
feet  deep.  Human  bones  of  a  large  size  have  been  found  near  the 
mound." 

Ten  or  twelve  years  ago  I  visited  this  mound.  It  appeared  to 
me  only  partly  artificial,  and  that  the  makers  of  it  had  taken  ad- 

*  Probably  ' '  lime ' '  brakes  should  be  canebrakes. 


THE  TUMULI  NEAR  MACON,  GEORGIA. 


CHAP.  XXI.]  OF    AMERICA.  22? 

vantage  of  the  form  of  an  elevation  to  shape  it  so  as  to  make  this 
mound.  It  is  at  the  head  of  a  ravine,  and  much  higher  on  the 
side  of  the  ravine  than  on  the  opposite  side.  It  did  not  appear  to 
me  nearly  as  high  as  the  two  accounts  make  it.  There  was  on  the 
top  of  the  great  mound  a  mound  about  ten  or  twelve  feet  high,  flat 
on  the  top,  which  was  about  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  in  diameter  (as 
well  as  I  can  remember  and  form  an  idea  of  it).  This  mound 
commanded  the  ascent  to  the  top  of  the  main  mound,  being  situa- 
ted near  its  edge,  where  the  roadway  passed  below  it,  or  as  the 
Mills  account  has  it,  "  in  the  middle  of  the  west  line."  Opposite 
this  smaller  mound,  and  near  the  edge  of  the  main  mound,  was  a 
shapeless  mass  of  earth,  which  appeared  to  indicate  that  there 
had  been  some  structure  there.  I  have  seen  an  account  which 
mentioned  that  there  were  seven  altars  on  the  summit  of  this  great 
mound.  The  shapeless  heap,  just  mentioned,  may  have  been  one 
of  the  altars.  The  elevations  of  this  great  mound  given  in  the  two 
accounts  above  appear  to  me  exaggerated.  But  as  the  accounts 
here  given  are  probably  the  earliest,  the  work  then  was  nearer  its 
original  state  than  at  any  time  since,  and  great  changes  may  have 
since  been  made  by  the  removal  of  some  and  the  deterioration  of 
others  of  these  works.  The  best  description  may  be  gathered  from 
these  two  accounts. 

Large  men  and  strong  men  have  existed  among  all  nations, 
Goliaths  and  Charlemagnes,  Samsons  and  Herculeses.  But  there 
is  no  record  of  a  nation  of  extraordinary  large  men.  The  mum- 
mies of  Egypt  at  no  period  indicate  the  human  size  to  have  been 
greater  than  at  present. 

In  the  "  Antiquities  of  the  Southern  Indians,"  by  Charles  C. 
Jones,  there  is  a  description  of  the  remarkable  mound  [17]  on  the 
left  side  of  the  Ockrnulgee  River,  below  and  a  little  more  than  a 
mile  from  the  city  of  Macon,  from  which  the  following  is  taken : 
"  This  mound,  A,  is  located  upon  the  summit  of  a  natural  hill,  and 
occupies  a  commanding  position.  The  earth  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed was  gathered  in  the  valley  and  conveyed  to  the  top  of  the 
hill,  so  as  in  the  end  to  increase  its  elevation  by  some  forty-five 
or  fifty  feet.  The  summit  diameters  of  this  tumulus,  measured 
north  and  south,  and  east  and  west,  are  respectively  one  hundred 
and  eighty  and  two  hundred  feet.  On  the  west  is  an  artificial 
plateau,  still  about  eight  feet  high,  seventy-two  feet  long,  and 
ninety-three  feet  wide.  On  the  north  and  east  are  three  spurs  or 
elevated  approaches,  over  which,  as  paths,  the  laborers  during  the 
construction  of  the  mound  carried  their  burdens  of  sand  and 
clay  in  cane  baskets,  and  by  means  of  which,  when  the  tumulus 


228  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXI. 

was  completed,  ascent  to  its  summit  was  rendered  more  facile. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  this  was  a  temple-mound,  used  by  priests 
and  devotees  in  their  established  worship  of  the  Sun. 

One  hundred  feet  north  of  this  tumulus  is  a  second  mound,  B, 
about  forty  feet  high,  elliptical  in  shape,  with  a  summit  diameter, 
measured  in  the  direction  of  the  major  axis,  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-eight  feet.  Northwest  of  this  mound,  and  distant  between 
three  and  four  hundred  yards,  is  the  third  of  the  group,  C,  its 
outlines  marred  by  the  elements,  and  its  northern  slope  carried 
away  by  the  excavations  for  the  new  track  of  the  Central  Railway. 
It  is  still  about  forty  feet  high,  and  is  conical  in  form — its  mean 
summit  diameter  being  about  eighty-two  feet.  On  its  top  is  the 
decayed  stump  of  a  tree  more  than  five  feet  thick. 

About  four  hundred  yards  in  a  northeasterly  direction  from 
this  mound  is  the  last  tumulus  of  the  series,  D.  In  general  charac- 
teristics it  closely  resembles  the  mound  last  mentioned.  These 
mounds  are  all  flat  on  their  summits,  and  may  be  described  as 
truncated  cones,  with  the  exception  of  the  temple-mound,  which 
assimilates  the  form  of  an  octagonal  truncated  pyramid.  The 
temple-mound  was  erected  for  religious  purposes ;  the  others  were 
heaped  up,  probably  in  honor  of  the  dead.  Upon  the  acclivity  east 
of  the  central  mound  are  manifest  remains  of  an  aboriginal  settle- 
ment. Here,  in  excavating  for  the  new  track  of  the  Central  Rail- 
way, the  workmen  a  short  time  since  unearthed,  a  few  feet  below 
the  surface,  several  skeletons,  in  connection  with  which  were  found 
beads  of  shell  and  porcelain,  a  part  of  a  discoid  stone,  several 
arrow  and  spear-points,  two  stone  celts,  a  clay  pipe,  an  earthen 
pot  and  other  matters  of  a  primitive  character,  fashioned  for  use 
or  ornament. 

This  excavation  for  the  line  of  the  railway  necessitated  the 
removal  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  northern  side  of  the 
central  mound.  In  the  conduct  of  this  work  the  laborers,  while 
cutting  through  the  slope  of  the  mound,  and  at  the  depth,  per- 
haps, of  three  feet  below  the  superior  surface,  exhumed  several 
skulls,  regular  in  outline  and  possessing  the  ordinary  character- 
istics of  American  crania.  Associated  with  these  skeletons  were 
stone  implements — the  handiwork  of  the  red  race — Venetian 
beads  and  copper  hawk-belts  acquired  through  commercial  inter- 
course with  the  early  traders  and  voyagers.  The  fact  was  patent 
that  at  least  some  of  these  inhumations  had  occurred  subsequent 
to  the  period  of  primal  contact  between  the  European  and  the 
Indian. 

Passing  below  these  interments — which  were  evidently  second- 


CHAP.  XXI.]  OF   AMERICA.  229 

ary  in  their  character — and  arriving  at  the  bottom  of  the  mound, 
a  skull  was  obtained  which  differed  most  essentially  from  those 
we  have  described  as  belonging  to  a  later  inhumation.  It  was 
vastly  older  than  those  of  the  secondary  interments,  and  had 
been  artificially  distorted  to  such  an  extent  that  the  cerebellum 
was  quite  obliterated,  while  the  front  portion  of  the  skull  had  not 
only  been  flattened,  but  irregularly  compressed  so  as  to  cause  an 
undue  elevation  and  divergence  to  the  left. 

Among  the  relics  found  in  the  vicinity  of  this  artificially-com- 
pressed skull  was  a  total  absence  of  European  ornaments.  Here 
we  have  an  interesting  demonstration  of  the  fact  that  these  an- 
cient tumuli  were  in  turn  used  by  tribes  who,  perhaps,  had  no 
knowledge  the  one  of  the  other.  The  flattened  and  distorted 
skull  belongs  to  the  mound-building  people,  to  whose  industry 
the  erection  of  these  tumuli  is  to  be  referred.  It  was  in  perpetu- 
ation and  in  honor  of  such  primal  sepulture  that  this  mound  was 
heaped  up.  In  the  course  of  time  these  sepulchral  and  temple- 
structures,  abandoned  of  their  owners,  passed  into  the  hands  of 
other  and  later  red  races,  who  buried  their  dead  upon  the  interior 
surface  and  along  the  slopes  of  these  ancient  tumuli,  having  at 
the  time,  perchance,  no  personal  acquaintance  with,  and  fre- 
quently not  even  a  distinct  tradition  of,  the  people  to  whose  ex- 
ertions these  evidences  of  early  constructive  skill  were  attribut- 
able. 

The  very  generations  of  the  dead 
Are  swept  away,  and  tomb  inherits  tomb, 

Until  the  memory  of  an  age  is  fled, 
And  buried,  sinks  beneath  the  offspring's  doom. — BYRON. 

Who  these  flat-head  mound-builders  were  is  matter  for  conjec- 
ture. It  may  be  that  they  were  a  colony  of  the  Natchez,  journey- 
ing hither  from  their  old  habitance  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi. 

Below  these  mounds,  in  the  valley-lands  of  the  Ockmulgee, 
upon  Lamar's  plantation,  are  several  large  tumuli.  The  presence 
of  these  mounds  and  the  numerous  relics  scattered  through  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  valley  for  miles,  afford  ample  testimony 
that  this  rich  alluvial  soil  was  once  the  seat  of  a  numerous  and, 
perhaps,  permanent  population." 

My  first  view  of  this  temple  mound  was  in  the  fall  of  1881.  A 
few  years  since  I  had  curiosity  to  visit  it  again,  and,  from  my  ob- 
servations made  at  these  visits,  I  formed  the  idea  that  this  mound 
was  not  wholly  artificial.  It  is  on  a  point  of  the  highland  pro- 
jecting into  the  lowlands  of  the  Ockmulgee  river,  and  was  probably 
a  prominent  elevation  of  which  the  builder  took  advantage  for 


230  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXI. 

the  formation  of  this  mound  by  excavating  the  ground  on  two 
sides — the  north  and  west — and  heaping  it  on  the  summit  of  the 
elevation.  Earth  could  not  be  taken  from  the  other  two  sides,  on 
account  of  the  declivity  of  the  highland  on  those  two  sides. 

I  observed  no  indication  of  terraces,' no  inclined  plane  or  ramp 
for  ascending  to  the  top  of  the  mound.  But  I  believe  that  this 
mound  was  terraced  and  that  the  ascent  was  made  by  steps  or  an 
inclined  plane  leading  from  the  base  of  one  terrace  to  the  next,  as 
described  in  the  account  of  the  teocalli  of  Mexico.  Time  and  the 
elements  have  obliterated  in  this  mound,  as  it  has  probably  in 
many  others,  the  angles,  terraces,  platforms  and  altars  that  origi- 
nally were  distinct  in  these  structures. 

This  mound  had  been  occupied  by  troops  in  the  late  war,  and 
an  entrenchment  had  been  made  on  its  summit,  so  as  to  embrace 
all  the  area  of  the  summit,  the  earth  from  the  ditch  being  heaped 
on  the  edge  of  the  declivity  of  the  mound,  thus  forming  a  breast- 
work. The  water  accumulated  in  this  ditch  had  burst  its  barrier, 
flowed  down  the  south  side  of  the  mound,  and  made  a  consider- 
able ravine. 

The  top  of  this  mound,  as  the  top  of  that  at  Sultzertown,  had 
been  cultivated,  and  it  is  also  probable  that  this  cultivation  has 
not  only  reduced  the  elevation,  but  has  also  destroyed  every  struc- 
ture that  may  have  originally  been  raised  on  its  summit.  The 
mound  on  the  edge  of  the  railroad  excavation  is,  as  the  temple 
mound,  denuded  of  trees  and  quite  bare. 

The  Choctaws  and  the  Caribbs  flatten  the  head,  and  I  heard 
many  years  ago  that  a  human  skull  flattened  in  a  manner  similar 
to  the  flattened  skull  found  in  the  middle  mound  of  the  Macon 
group  was  discovered  in  the  Sultzertown  mound.  There  were  and 
still  are  Indians  who  flatten  the  heads  of  their  children  when  in- 
fants. James  G.  Swan,  in  his  book  entitled  "  The  North  West 
Coast;  or,  Three  Years'  Residence  in  Washington  Territory,"  has 
the  following,  in  speaking  of  some  of  the  coast  tribes  of  Indians 
between  the  Columbia  River  and  Fuca  Straits  :  "  The  most  singular 
custom  among  these  Indians  is  that  of  flattening  or  compressing 
the  head  of  the  infant.  Where  this  custom  originated  is  hard  to 
tell.  Lewis  and  Clark  state  that  it  is  not  peculiar  to  that  part  of 
the  continent.  But  wherever  it  began,  or  what  was  its  origin,  the 
practice  is  now  universal  among  the  tribes  west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  in  the  region  of  Columbia,  and  it  is  confined  to  them, 
for,  with  the  exception  of  the  Snake  Indians,  who  are  called  Flat 
Heads,  the  fashion  is  not  known  to  the  east  of  that  barrier. 

This  pressure  on  the  forehead  causes  the  head  to  expand  lat- 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  231 

erally,  giving  an  expression  of  great  broadness  to  the  face  ;  but  I 
never  perceived  that  it  affected  the  mind  at  all,  although  it  dis- 
figures them  very  much  in  appearance.  I  have  seen  several  whose 
heads  have  not  been  thus  pressed,  and  they  were  smart,  intelligent, 
and  quite  good-looking,  but  they  were  laughed  at  by  the  others, 
who  asserted  that  their  mothers  were  too  lazy  to  shape  their  heads 
properly.  But  although  I  have  seen  persons  with -and  others 
without  this  deformity,  I  never  could  discover  any  superiority  of 
intellect  of  one  over  the  other." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

Tumuli — Views  of  a  Member  of  the  First  Congress — The  Works  on  Little 
Eiver,  Georgia — Bartram's  Description  of  them,  of  Cullsate,  of  Sticoe,  of 
Keowee — Ancient  Tombs  and  Fortifications  on  the  River  Huron,  or  Bald 
Eagle — Ancient  Works  near  Newark,  Ohio — Ancient  Fortifications  at 
Marietta — The  Ancient  Works  at  Grave  Creek,  Virginia — Schoolcraft's  Visit 
to  them. 

THE  following  is  from  a  work  entitled  "  Voyage  dans  La  Haute 
Pennsylvanie,"  published  at  Paris  in  the  year  1801  : 

"  I  have  the  following  details  relative  to  artificial  mounds  and 
arenas  which  are  seen  in  Georgia  and  the  two  Floridas,  of  Mr. 
B ,  elected  member  of  Congress  at  the  birth  of  the  new  Govern- 
ment, and  for  four  years  since  Senator  of  the  United  States.* 

We  know  by  the  tradition  of  the  Cherokees  that  at  the  period 
of  the  arrival  of  their  ancestors  from  the  mountains  of  Mexico 
these  great  works  were  very  nearly  the  same  as  we  see  them  now, 
and  that  the  most  ancient  among  the  Savannucasf  were  ignorant 
when  and  by  whom  they  had  been  raised.  This  invasion  took 
place  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  If  we  suppose  that, 
among  a  nation  of  hunters,  three  hundred  years  were  sufficient 
to  efface  the  last  souvenirs  of  tradition,  then  the  existence  of  these 
monuments  ascends  to  the  twelfth  century.  How  much  it  is  to 
be  regretted  that  these  feeble  lights  are  extinct!  What  could  be 
the  cause  of  this  absolute  silence  ?  Does  it  come  from  the  high 
antiquity  of  these  works,  or  from  the  stupid  ignorance  of  our  abo- 
rigines ?  Was  this  ancient  people  aboriginal  ?  How  many  cen- 
turies has  it  existed  as  a  nation  before  having  been  able  to  raise 
these  pyramids  and  dig  these  arenas?  For  what  use  were  they 

*  Probably  Mr.  Baldwin,  of  Georgia. 

f  The  name  of  the  ancient  natives  of  Georgia  and  the  mountains  of  Tennessee. 


232  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

destined  ?  What  is  the  degree  of  civilization  to  which  men  can 
arrive  without  the  knowledge  of  the  use  of  iron  ?  What  were  the 
religious  opinions  to  which  these  pyramids  were  adapted  ?  What 
has  been  the  fate  of  these  ancient  nations  ?  Could  they  have  been 
destroyed  by  some  great  catastrophe  of  nature?  That  is  not  pro- 
bable, since  the  works,  entirely  constructed  of  earth,  still  exist. 
Could  they  have  been  exterminated  by  barbarians  from  the  inte- 
rior of  the  continent?  If  so,  how  conceive  that  a  numerous  peo- 
ple, capable  of  raising  so  imposing  and  massive  ones,  could  be  en- 
tirely destroyed,  and  that  the  lights"  and  knowledge  that  they  had 
acquired  have  perished  with  it,  without  those  who  would  have 
escaped  having  carried  elsewhere  its  lights  and  its  knowledge,  or, 
finally,  without  the  conquerors  having  preserved  some  sparks  of  it? 

Is  the  period  of  its  existence  posterior,  or  is  it  anterior  to  that 
of  this  ancient  people  which  raised  on  the  borders  of  the  Ohio 
and  elsewhere  entrenched  camps  which  have  been  discovered  for 
many  years  ?  After  an  attentive  examination  of  these  works 
alike  made  of  earth,  and  in  which,  as  well  as  in  the  first,  there  is 
not  found  any  indication  of  iron  nor  of  any  dressed  stone,  we  can 
believe  them  cotemporary.  If  we  conceive  that  a  pacific  people 
such  as  that  which  inhabited  this  State  and  the  two  Floridas  have 
been  destroyed  by  barbarous  nations,  to  what  cause  shall  we  at- 
tribute the  entire  disappearance  of  the  warlike  nations  of  the  Ohio, 
which  could  raise  ramparts  so  formidable  and  choose  positions  so 
military  ?  If  these  works  date  from  the  same  epoch  (which  ap- 
pears very  probable),  the  same  unknown  cause  would  have  de- 
stroyed at  the  same  time  the  warlike  people  and  the  pacific  na- 
tion, although  separated  by  a  distance  of  more  than  two  hundred 
leagues. 

Like  to  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  these  traces  of  the  existence, 
of  the  industry,  and  of  the  civilization  of  these  ancient  peoples, 
are  no  more  than  useless  and  mute  witnesses,  whose  relation  with 
the  ancient  state  and  things  of  this  part  of  the  world  are  enveloped 
and  lost  in  the  vague  darkness  of  the  past.  However,  although 
these  entrenched  camps,  these  works,  are  but  as  imperceptible 
points,  hillocks,  compared  with  the  grandeur  of  those  rivals,  of 
ages  raised  on  the  borders  of  the  Nile,  they  present  to  the  view 
of  the  observer  what  America  contains  of  the  most  ancient  and 
most  extraordinary  and  of  the  most  worthy  to  be  attentively 
examined. 

But,  finally,  since  we  cannot  form  conjectures  more  probable,  we 
must  therefore  believe  that  these  industrious  and  peaceable  nations 
must  have  been  exterminated  by  some  barbarous  hordes  from  the 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF   AMERICA.  233 

interior  of  the  country,  who,  in  the  course  of  ages,  must  have  been 
destroyed  by  other  tribes  not  less  ferocious,  these  latter  by  the 
Cherokees  driven  from  the  mountains  of  Mexico,  and  finally  these 
last  by  the  men  from  Europe.  Such  has  been  the  fate  of  nearly 
all  nations.  All  have  undergone  nearly  the  same  vicissitudes,  all 
have  had  to  struggle  or  have  been  the  sport  and  the  victims  of  the 
caprice  of  that  formidable  power,  unknown,  which  we  call  destiny, 
fatality,  or  chance. 

Twenty  miles  from  Wrightsburg,  not  far  from  the  borders  of 
Little  River,  are  seen,  in  the  midst  of  a  fertile  plain,  many  arti- 
ficial hillocks  whose  bases  are  from  seven  hundred  to  eight  hun- 
dred feet  in  circumference,  and  from  thirty  to  forty  feet  in  height; 
a  pyramid  whose  dimensions  are  more  considerable;  four  terraces 
of  a  square  form,  having  from  ten  to  twelve  feet  of  ele'vation ;  and, 
finally,  an  arena  dug,  with  four  ranges  of  banquettes,  which,  as 
far  as  I  could  judge  of  them,  could  contain  three  thousand  spec- 
tators; and  further  still  the  evident  marks  of  trenches  and  of 
ancient  cultivation,  in  which  enormous  oaks  grow ;  I  measured 
some  of  them  that  were  four  feet  seven  inches  in  diameter.  The 
pyramid  alone,  whose  height  might  be  fifty-five  feet,  must  have 
required  the  labor  of  some  thousands  of  men  during  several  years ; 
as  to  its  form,  thanks  to  the  thick  bushes,  as  well  as  to  the  roots 
of  the  trees  which  covered  it,  it  still  exists  almost  entire. 

Farther  to  the  west,  on  the  borders  of  a  great  natural  prairie, 
one  sees  works  much  like  these  last,  but  whose  dimensions  are 
smaller,  or  which  have  been  more  deteriorated  by  the  rapacity 
of  time. 

At  some  distance  from  the  borders  of  the  Ockmulgee,  whose 
union  with  the  Oconee  forms  the  Altamaha,  are  also  to  be  seen 
the  evident  traces  of  the  long  and  persevering  industry  of  an 
ancient  people,  such  as  some  remains  of  terraces,  arenas,  mounds, 
and  pyramidal  elevations,  near  which  are  found  fragments  of  pot- 
tery of  a  kind  much  more  improved  than  those  of  which  our 
natives  make  use. 

The  most  important  work,  and  the  most  worthy  to  excite  cu- 
riosity, is  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fort  Dartmouth,  on  the  borders 
of  the  Keowee  (eastern  branch  of  the  Savannah),  one  hundred 
miles  above  the  town  of  Augusta.*  The  first  object  which  strikes 
the  eye  of  the  traveller  is  a  circular  pyramid  whose  base  is  one 
thousand  feet,  or  about,  in  circumference,  whose  height  is  seventy 

*  "Capital  of  Georgia,  built  on  a  beautiful  plain  at  the  extremity  of  the 
maritime  navigation  of  the  Savannah  Kiver,  at  one  hundred  leagues  from  the 
sea,  on  the  route  that  leads  to  the  Creek  nations  and  to  the  Mississippi." 


234  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

feet,  as  well  as  I  could  judge  of  it  without  the  assistance  of  instru- 
ments, and  whose  summit  is  crowned  with  cedars.  It  is  ascended 
by  a  spiral  path,  on  which,  at  different  elevations,  and  facing  the 
four  cardinal  points,  are  four  niches.  From  the  top  of  this  pyra- 
mid are  discovered  many  other  elevations  less  important.  Some 
are  square,  others  in  the  form  of  parallelograms ;  some  are  two 
hundred  feet  in  length  and  from  five  to  twelve  feet  in  height.  But 
what  is  still  more  astonishing  is  a  causeway  of  more  than  three 
miles  in  length,  which  the  water  of  the  river  never  overflows, 
although  it  washes  the  base  of  the  pyramid  in  the  frequent  inun- 
dations." 

I  will  here  interrupt  this  Congressman's  narration  to  insert  an 
interesting  description  of  the  same  works  by  William  Bartram, 
the  Philadelphia  botanist. 

The  following  is  William  Bartram 's  account  of  his  visit  to  these 
monuments,  in  April  or  May,  1776:  "Towards  evening  I  crossed 
Broad  River  at  a  good  ford,  just  above  its  confluence  with  the 
Savannah,  and  arrived  at  Fort  James,  which  is  a  fine  square  stock- 
ade with  salient  bastions  at  each  angle,  mounted  with  a  block- 
house, where  are  some  swivel-guns,  one  story  higher  than  the  cur- 
tains, which  are  pierced  with  loop-holes  breast-high,  and  defended 
by  small-arms.  The  fortification  encloses  about  an  acre  of  ground, 
wherein  is  the  governor's  or  commandant's  house,  a  good  building, 
which  is  flanked  on  each  side  by  buildings  for  the  officers  and 
barracks  for  the  garrison,  consisting  of  fifty  rangers,  including 
officers,  each  having  a  good  horse  well  equipped,  a  rifle,  two  dra- 
goon-pistols, and  a  hanger,  besides  a  powder-horn,  shot-pouch  and 
tomahawk.  The  fort  stands  on  an  eminence  in  the  forks  between 
the  Savannah  and  the  Broad  Rivers,  about  one  mile  above  Fort 
Charlotta,  which  is  situated  near  the  banks  of  the  Savannah,  on 
the  Carolina  side.  Fort  James  is  situated  nearly  at  equal  dis- 
tances from  the  banks  of  the  two  rivers,  and  from  the  extreme 
point  of  the  land  that  separates  them.  The  point  or  peninsula 
between  the  two  rivers,  for  the  distance  of  two  miles  back  from 
the  fort,  is  laid  out  for  a  town,  named  Dartmouth. 

I  made  a  little  excursion  up  the  Savannah  River,  four  or  five 
miles  above  the  fort,  with  the  surgeon  of  the  garrison,  who  was 
so  polite  as  to  attend  me,  to  show  me  some  remarkable  Indian 
monuments,  which  are  worthy  of  every  traveller's  notice.  These 
wonderful  labors  of  the  ancients  stand  in  a  level  plain  very  near 
the  bank  of  the  river,  now  twenty  or  thirty  yards  from  it.  They 
consist  of  conical  mounts  of  earth  and  four  square  terraces,  etc. 
The  great  mount  is  in  the  form  of  a  cone,  about  forty  or  fifty  feet 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF   AMERICA.  235 

high,  and  the  circumference  of  its  base  two  or  three  hundred 
yards,  entirely  composed  of  the  loamy  rich  earth  of  the  low  grounds. 
The  top,  or  apex,  is  flat ;  a  spiral  path  or  track  leading  from  the 
ground  up  to  the  top,  is  still  visible.  There  appear  four  niches 
excavated  out  of  the  sides  of  this  hill,  at  different  heights  from 
the  base,  fronting  the  four  cardinal  points;  these  niches  are  en- 
tered from  the  winding  path. 

It  is  altogether  unknown  to  us  what  could  have  induced  the 
Indians  to  raise  such  a  heap  of  earth  in  this  place,  the  ground 
for  a  great  space  around  being  subject  to  inundation  at  least  once 
a  year.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppose,  however,  that  they  were  to 
serve  for  some  important  purpose  in  those  days,  as  they  are  public 
works,  and  would  have  required  the  united  labor  and  attention  of 
a  whole  nation,  circumstanced  as  they  were,  to  have  constructed 
one  of  them  almost  in  an  age.  There  are  several  less  ones  round 
about  the  great  one,  with  some  very  large  tetragon  terraces  on 
each  side,  nearly  one  hundred  yards  in  length,  and  their  surface 
four,  six,  eight,  and  ten  feet  above  the  ground  on  which  they 
stand. 

We  may,  however,  hazard  a  conjecture  that,  as  there  is  generally 
a  narrow  space  or  ridge  in  these  lowlands  immediately  bordering 
on  the  river's  bank,  which  is  eight  or  ten  feet  higher  than  the  ad- 
joining low  grounds  that  lie  betwixt  the  stream  and  the  heights 
of  the  adjacent  mainland,  which,  when  the  river  overflows  its 
banks,  are  many  feet  under  water,  when,  at  the  same  time,  this 
ridge  on  the  river  bank  is  above  water  and  dry,  and  at  such  in- 
undations appears  as  an  island  in  the  river,  these  people  might 
have  had  a  town  on  this  ridge,  and  this  mound  raised  for  a  retreat 
and  refuge  in  case  of  inundations."* 

Returning  to  the  Congressman,  he  continues :  "  Six  miles  fur- 
ther we  enter  into  another  valley,  as  beautiful  and  as  cool,  known 
under  the  name  of  Cullsate,  in  the  middle  of  which  are  seen  great 
and  long  terraces,  and  two  pyramids  from  thirty  to  thirty-five 
feet  in  height.  This  valley  is  not  exposed  to  the  inundation  of 
the  Keowee. 

Farther  still,  in  the  mountains,  not  far  from  the  site  of  the 
ancient  town  of  Sticoe,  is  seen  another  pyramid,  whose  circumfer- 
ence is  eight  hundred  feet,  and  the  height  forty-eight,  with  very  con- 
siderable terraces.  The  same  objects  are  found  at  Cowee,  capital  of 
one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  most  fertile  valleys  of  Tennessee,  as 
well  as  many  conical  tombs.  An  old  Cherokee  chief  told  me  that 

*  This  "  ridge  on  the  river  bank  "  was  probably  a  levee — dike. 


286  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

at  the  time  of  the  invasion  of  his  ancestors  these  tombs  and  these 
artificial  mounds  existed  in  very  nearly  the  same  condition. 

At  some  miles  from  Fort  Prince  George  of  Keowee  are  also  seen 
many  conical  elevations,  which  are  believed  to  be  tombs,  and  four 
artificial  hillocks  covered  with  trees  and  bushes.  At  Watoga,  a 
very  considerable  Cherokee  town,  there  is  a  pyramid  whose  height 
the  inhabitants  have  reduced  twenty  feet,  on  which  they  have 
erected  their  rotunda,  or  place  of  council.  The  old  Oweekamwee 
repeated  to  me  what  I  had  heard  at  Cowee  relative  to  the  traditions 
of  the  ancient  Savannucas. 

Not  far  from  the  town  of  Keowee  they  have  lately  discovered 
some  other  ancient  works,  the  only  ones  that  bore  the  imprint  of 
the  hammer.  They  are  composed  of  four  stones,  six  feet  long 
and  three  feet  wide ;  two  of  these  stones  are  placed  edgewise,  in  a 
parallel  direction,  a  third  covers  them,  and  the  fourth  closes  one 
of  the  extremities. 

They  have  long  ago  discovered  in  the  two  Ploridas  monuments 
like  to  the  first,  also  causeways  which  appear  to  have  been  raised 
to  form  ponds,  some  roads  running  straight  and  perfectly  level, 
which  led  to  the  neighboring  savannas ;  some  fragments  of  vases 
and  of  elegant  pottery.  The  most  important  of  these  works  are 
situated  near  Lake  George,  on  the  river  St.  John,  also  at  Tensas, 
on  the  Mobile,  at  Otassee,  at  Ufala,  Talassee,  Muclassee,  on  the 
Talapoosa,  or  Oakfuska,  at  Kiolege,  on  the  Coosa,  at  Uche,  on  the 
Apalachuela,  etc. 

Is  it  not  surprising  that  the  natives  consider  with  the  greatest 
indifference  these  ancient  and  respectable  evidences  of  the  long 
sojourn,  and  of  the  industry  of  nations  which  have  preceded 
them,  and  which  in  remote  times  inhabited  and  cultivated  this 
beautiful  part  of  the  continent?  It  is  the  same  with  the  whites, 
who  traded  with  or  resided  among  them.  A  young  man,  a  good 
geometer  and  tolerable  delineator,  undertook  to  draw  the  plans, 
and  to  sketch  views  of  them ;  but  unfortunately  several  Seminole 
hunters,  having  met  him,  took  him  for  some  one  who  came 
secretly  to  survey  their  lands  (which  in  their  eyes  is  an  unpardon- 
able crime),  and  were  going  to  kill  him,  when  he  had  the  pres- 
ence of  mind  to  show  them  his  designs.  They  led  him  to  the 
Myco  of  the  village,  who  released  him ;  but  through  condescension 
for  these  hunters  he  cast  into  the  fire  his  designs  and  plans  and 
forbade  him  to  appear  among  them  with  any  instrument." 

Details  of  ancient  fortifications  situated  on  the  river  Huron  or 
Bald  Eagle,  which  flows  into  Lake  Erie,  sent  to  General  Washing- 
ton, the  29th  of  June,  1789,  by  A.  Steiner  [18]. 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF  AMERICA.  237 

"  The  first  of  these  fortifications,  No.  1,  is  situated  at  two  hundred 
and  twenty  toises  from  the  eastern  bank  of  this  river,  at  eight  miles 
above  its  mouth,  in  this  lake.  It  is  a  plateau,  A,  of  three  hundred 
feet  in  diameter,  and  of  an  ordinary  elevation,  surrounded  by  a 
circular  platform  from  three  feet  and  a  half  to  five  feet  in  height, 
and  from  seven  to  eight  in  thickness.  Twenty-four  feet  beyond 
this  first  rampart  there  is  seen  another,  B,  having  the  same  height 
and  the  same  thickness,  but  which  is  a  semicircle.  In  the  same 
manner  as  the  first  it  is  surrounded  with  a  ditch  from  four  to  six 
feet  in  width,  still  filled  with  water.  There  is  upon  this  esplanade 
neither  stones  nor  any  vestiges  of  ancient  edifices.  The  entrance, 
C,  is  not  defended  by  any  advanced  work.  Towards  the  north- 
east are  seen  thirty-four  tombs,  D,  from  sixty  to  seventy  feet  in 
circumference,  and  from  three  to  four  feet  in  height,  the  forms  of 
which  are  partly  circular  and  elliptical.  The  first  are  but  five 
feet  from  the  ditch ;  there  are  four  others,  D,  towards  the  north- 
west, whose  dimensions  are  the  same. 

Two  miles  lower,  on  the  borders  of  the  declivity,  E,  of  the  little 
stream  that  flows  into  the  Huron,  there  is  seen  a  mound,  No.  2, 
surrounded  by  a  double  platform  and  ditches,  which  begin  and 
terminate  on  the  same  declivity.  The  only  difference  is  that  in- 
stead of  one  entrance,  this  little  entrenched  camp  has  three,  G. 
Towards  the  south  there  is  another  plateau,  H,  likewise  accom- 
panied with  its  ditch,  but  the  form  of  which  is  not  a  perfect  circle, 
and  which  appears  to  have  been  raised  only  to  cover  the  two  prin- 
cipal entrances.  Not  far  from  the  most  southern  are  two  eleva- 
tions of  earth,  K,  I,  which  touch  the  wall  or  platform.  The  first, 
which  is  circular,  is  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and  only  two  and  a  half 
in  height ;  the  second  is  a  square  of  the  same  height,  and  seventy 
feet  each  side.  The  tombs  which  are  in  the  vicinity  of  this  en- 
trenched camp  are  not  numerous ;  some  others  are  seen  more 
distant  in  the  same  direction. 

These  ancient  fortifications  are  covered  with  bushes  and  with 
trees  whose  trunks  are  from  eighteen  to  twenty  inches  in  diameter. 
On  the  summit  of  one  of  these  tombs  I  observed  a  dead  oak  that 
was  thirty  inches  in  diameter.  The  earth  in  this  county  is  a  clay, 
on  which  there  is  a  very  thin  layer  of  vegetable  soil.  The  forests 
consist  of  white  and  red  oaks,  beech  and  linden  trees.  The  na- 
tives, who  are  a  mixture  of  Chippeways,  Delawares  and  Wyan- 
dots,  told  me  that  according  to  tradition  these  military  works 
had  been  raised  by  men  much  larger  and  stronger  than  they. 
That  then  all  the  nations  were  in  a  state  of  continual  war,  that 


238  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

their  hunters  had  discovered  many  other  fortifications,  some  like 
to  these,  and  others  more  considerable;  and  that  these  ancient 
natives  made  use  of  the  scapula  of  the  stag  and  the  elk  as  we 
make  use  of  the  iron  shovel." 

The  following  description  of  the  earthworks  at  Newark,  Ohio,  is 
from  "  Antiquities  of  the  West,"  by  Caleb  Atwater : 

"  Between  the  two  branches  of  Licking  river,  Raccoon  creek  and 
South  fork,  near  Newark,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  are  ancient  earth- 
works, which  on  many  accounts  are  quite  as  remarkable  as  any 
others  in  North  America,  or  perhaps  in  any  part  of  the  world. 

By  reference  to  the  scale  on  which  they  are  projected,  it  will  be 
seen  that  these  works  are  of  great  extent  [19]. 

A  is  a  fort  containing  about  forty  acres,  with  its  walls,  which 
are  generally,  I  should  judge,  about  ten  feet  high.  Leading  into 
this  fort  are  eight  openings  or  gateways,  about  fifteen  feet  in  width, 
in  front  of  which  is  a  small  mound  of  earth,  in  height  and  thick- 
ness resembling  the  outer  wall  (see  m).  These  small  mounds  are 
about  four  feet  longer  than  the  gateway  is  in  width  ;  otherwise  they 
look  as  if  the  wall  had  been  moved  into  the  fort  eight  or  ten  feet. 
These  small  mounds  of  earth  were  probably  intended  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  gates  opposite  to  which  they  are  situated.  The  walls 
of  this  work  consist  of  earth  taken  from  the  surface  so  carefully 
and  uniformly  that  it  cannot  now  be  discovered  from  what  point.* 
They  are  as  nearly  perpendicular  as  the  earth  could  be  made 
to  lie. 

B  is  a  round  fort,  consisting  of  twenty-two  acres,  connected  with 
A  by  two  parallel  walls  of  earth  of  about  the  same  height,  etc.,  as 
those  of  A.  At  d  is  an  observatory,  built  partly  of  earth  and  partly 
of  stone.  It  commanded  a  full  view  of  a  considerable  part,  if  not 
all  the  plain  in  which  these  ancient  works  stand,  and  would  do  so 
now,  were  the  thick  growth  of  ancient  forest  trees,  which  clothe 
this  tract,  cleared  away.  Under  this  observatory  was  a  passage, 
from  appearances,  and  a  secret  one  probably,  to  the  water-course, 
which  once  ran  near  this  spot,  but  has  since  moved  farther  off. 

C  is  a  circular  fort,  containing  about  twenty-six  acres,  having  a 
wall  around  it,  which  was  thrown  out  of  a  deep  ditch  on  the  inner 
side  of  the  wall.  This  wall  is  now  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  in 
height ;  and  when  I  saw  this  work,  the  ditch  was  half-filled  with 
water,  especially  on  the  side  towards  E.  There  are  parallel  walls 
of  earth  c,  generally  five  or  six  rods  apart,  and  four  or  five  feet  in 
height. 

*  They  may  have  been  made  of  the  earth  removed  to  make  the  pond. 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  239 

D  is  a  square  fort  containing  twenty  acres,  whose  walls  are  simi- 
lar to  those  of  A. 

E  is  a  pond,  covering  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred 
acres,  which  was  a  few  years  since  entirely  dry,  so  that  a  crop  of 
Indian  corn  was  raised  where  the  water  is  now  ten  feet  in  depth  and 
appears  still  to  be  rising.  This  pond  sometimes  reaches  to  the 
very  walls  of  C  and  to  the  parallel  walls  towards  its  northern  end. 

F  is  the  interval,  or  alluvion  made  by  the  Raccoon  and  South 
fork  of  Licking  river,  since  they  washed  the  foot  of  the  hill  at  G. 
When  these  works  were  occupied,  we  have  reason  to  believe  that 
these  streams  washed  the  foot  of  this  hill,  and  as  one  proof  of  it, 
passages  down  to  the  water  have  been  made  of  easy  ascent  and 
descent  at  b. 

G,  an  ancient  bank  of  the  creeks  which  have  worn  their  chan- 
nels considerably  deeper  than  they  were  when  they  washed  the 
foot  of  this  hill.  These  works  stand  on  a  large  plain,  which  was 
elevated  forty  or  fifty  feet  above  the  interval  F,  and  is  almost  per- 
fectly flat,  and  as  rich  a  piece  of  land  as  can  be  found  in  any 
country.  The  reader  will  see  the  passes  where  the  authors  of  these 
works  entered  into  their  fields  at  IIIII,  and  which  were  probably 
cultivated.*  The  watch-towers,  a,  were  placed  at  the  ends  of  the 
parallel  walls,  on  ground  as  elevated  as  could  be  found  on  this  ex- 
tended plain.  They  are  surrounded  by  circular  walls,  now  only 
four  or  five  feet  in  height.  It  is  easy  to  see  the  utility  of  these 
works  placed  at  the  several  places  where  they  stand. 

C,  D,  two  parallel  walls,  leading  probably  to  other  works,  but 
not  having  been  traced  more  than  a  mile  or  two,  are  not  laid  down 
even  as  far  as  they  were  surveyed. 

The  high  ground  neaV  Newark  appears  to  have  been  the  place, 
and  the  only  one  which  I  saw,  where  the  ancient  occupants  of  these 
works  buried  their  dead,  and  even  these  tumuli  appeared  to  me  to 
be  small.  Unless  others  are  found  in  the  vicinity,  I  should  con- 
clude that  the  original  owners,  though  very  numerous,  did  not  re- 
side here  any  great  length  of  time.  I  should  not  be  surprised  if 
the  parallel  walls  C,  D,  are  found  to  extend  from  one  work  of  de- 
fence to  another,  for  the  space  of  thirty  miles,  all  the  way  across 
to  the  Hockhocking,  or  some  point  a  few  miles  north  of  Lancaster. 

Such  walls  having  been  discovered  in  different  places,  probably 
belonging  to  these  works,  for  ten  or  twelve  miles  at  least,  leads  me 
to  suspect  that  the  works  on  the  Licking  were  erected  by  people 
who  were  connected  with  those  who  lived  on  the  Hockhocking 

*  These  "  passes  "  do  not  appear,  unless  they  were  at  the  ends  of  the  parallel 
walls,  next  A  and  C. 


240  THE    INDIAN   AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

river,  and  that  their  road  between  the  two  settlements  was  between 
these  two  walls.* 

The  hearths,  burnt  charcoal,  cinders,  wood,  ashes,  etc.,  which 
were  uniformly  found  in  all  similar  places  that  are  now  cultivated, 
have  not  been  discovered  here,  this  plain  being  probably  an  un- 
cultivated forest.  I  found  here  several  arrow-heads,  such  as  evi- 
dently belonged  to  the  people  who  raised  other  similar  works. 

A  few,  miles  below  Newark,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Licking, 
are  some  of  the  most  extraordinary  holes  dug  in  the  earth,  for 
number  and  depth,  of  any  within  my  knowledge,  which  belonged 
to  the  people  we  are  treating  of.  In  popular  language  they  are 
called  '  wells,'  but  were  not  dug  for  the  purpose  of  procuring 
water,  either  fresh  or  salt.  There  are  at  least  a  thousand  of  these 
wells.  Many  of  them  are  more  than  twenty  feet  in  depth. "f 

Report  of  John  Hart,  Captain  in  the  First  Regiment  (of  the 
United  States),  relative  to  the  ancient  fortifications  discovered  on 
the  borders  of  the  Muskingum,  at  a  half  a  mile  from  the  conflu- 
ence of  this  river  with  the  Ohio  [20]. 

"  For  more  clearness,  I  shall  call  the  town  No.  1,  fortifications, 
No.  2,  and  pyramid,  No.  3.  The  town  is  a  square  of  two  hundred 
and  twenty  toises,  surrounded  by  a  platform  which  is  from  six  to 
ten  feet  in  height  and  from  twenty  to  forty  in  width.  Three  open- 
ings divide  this  platform  into  four  nearly  equal  parts.  Those 
which  faced  the  river  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  little  larger.  Noth- 
ing covered  the  four  angles  of  this  town ;  one  of  the  openings  of 
the  west  side  served  for  the  issue  of  a  road,  M,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  wide,  which  led  to  the  lowlands  of  the  riverj  by  a  gen- 
tle slope  of  sixty  toises.  This  road  is  closed  on  two  sides  by  a 
platform,  0,  which  begins  sixty  feet  from*  that  of  the  town  and 
rises  in  proportion  as  this  passage  descends,  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  preserve  its  level.  The  way  of  this  road  appears  to  have  been 
made  so  as  to  decline  on  each  side,  and  be  accompanied  by  two 
drains,  which  perhaps  served  for  the  flowing  off  of  the  waters  of 
the  town. 

Towards  the  northwest  angle  of  this  same  town  is  seen  an  ele- 

*  If  the  people  who  made  these  walls  lived  when  mastodons  roamed  through 
these  regions  they  might  have  been  of  some  use  to  protect  travellers  going  from 
one  settlement  to  another  from  these  monsters,  but  I  much  doubt  whether  similar 
roads  were  ever  constructed  in  any  country,  unless  the  great  wall  of  China  be 
considered  as  such. 

f  ' '  Description  of  the  Antiquities  discovered  in  the  State  of  Ohio  and  other 
Western  States."  By  Caleb  Atwater. 

J  Benjamin  Franklin  says  the  river  has  receded  three  hundred  feet  since  this 
work  was  made. 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF -AMERICA.  241 

vation,  B,  of  an  oblong  form,  which  is  thirty-seven  toises  long, 
twenty-two  wide,  and  six  feet  high  ;  its  surface  is  perfectly  even. 
Four  ramps  or  inclined  plains,  I,  placed  at  the  centre  of  the  four 
sides,  lead  to  it ;  the}'  appear  to  correspond  exactly  to  the  openings 
of  the  platforms  or  walls  of  the  town. 

Not  far  from  this  wall,  toward  the  northeast,  is  seen  another 
elevation,  G,  twenty-five  by  twenty  toises  ;  but  instead  of  four  ramps 
it  has  but  three — I,  I,  I.  The  place  of  the  fourth,  R,  appears  to 
have  been  hollowed.  A  little  more  to  the  north  is  another  ele- 
vation, circular,  L,  accompanied  by  four  small  excavations,  K, 
placed  at  equal  distances.  Towards  the  southeast  part  is  seen  an- 
other, H,  the  form  of  which  is  a  parallelogram,  and  which  is  nine 
toises  wide  and  eighteen  long  ;  it  is  much  more  deteriorated  than 
the  others.  The  most  southern  angle  of  the  town  is  covered  by  a 
very  peculiar  work  :  it  is  a  mound  quite  elevated,  N,  accompanied 
by  two  parapets,  X,  semi-circular.  It  is  probable  that  the  three 
other  angles  of  the  town  were  defended  by  some  works  like  to  this, 
which  time  may  have  destroyed. 

The  fortifications,  No.  2,  formed  a  whole  nearly  square,  which, 
as  the  town,  is  surrounded  by  platforms  whose  openings  are  de- 
fended by  mounds,  S.  Those  of  the  openings,  T,  T,  are  double. 
Between  these  fortifications  and  the  town  are  seen  excavations, 
some  circular  elevations,  Z,  and  some  tombs,  W.  No.  3,  the  pyra- 
mid, B,  is  nearly  circular ;  i,t  is  fifty  feet  in  height,  and  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety  in  circumference  ;  it  is  surrounded  by  a  ditch 
five  feet  deep  by  fifteen  wide,  as  also  by  an  exterior  parapet,  A, 
which  is  seven  hundred  and  fifty-nine  in  circuit.  This  enclosure 
has  but  one  opening,  R,  and  is  preceded  on  the  side  of  the  Ohio 
by  some  advanced  works,  C,  D. 

There  have  been  discovered  many  other  mounds,  excavations  and 
platforms  covered  with  bushes  and  trees  whose  ensemble  escaped 
my  view ;  it  is  what  decided  me  not  to  trace  them  on  the  plan. 

The  trees  which  cover  these  ancient  works  are  oaks  from  two.  to 
four  feet  in  diameter,  hickories,  sugar-maples,  ash,  sycamore, 
acacias,  plane-trees,  pines,  etc.  The  vegetable  soil  on  which  they 
grow  appears  to  be  as  deep  as  that  of  the  vicinity.  The  tombs  are 
small  elevations  in  which  are  found  human  bones.  It  appears 
that  the  bodies  had  been  inhumed  with  much  care  and  placed  in 
the  direction  from  east  to  west.  There  have  been  found  in  the 
breasts  of  some  of  them  pieces  of  talc.  The  bones  of  some  others 
have  been  calcined,  or  dried,  to  prolong  their  duration.  There 
have  also  been  discovered  stones  which  bore  the  imprint  of  fire, 
as  well  as  charcoal,  arrows,  and  fragments  of  pottery. 

16 


242  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

Moreover  they  have  not  found  iron  nor  anything  that  could 
cause  a  conjecture  that  these  ancient  people  had  known  this  metal. 
The  uniformity,  the  regularity  of  these  ramparts,  their  advanta- 
geous situation,  their  height,  the  largeness  of  these  platforms,  all  at- 
test that  they  have  been  raised  by  a  nation  numerous,  powerful  and 
considerably  advanced  in  civilization.  Dr.  Cutler,  a  celebrated 
botanist,  who  has  carefully  examined  the  oaks  fallen  through  old 
age,  as  well  as  those  which  are  still  in  all  their  vigor,  believes  that 
these  last  ones  are  a  second  generation,  which  carries  the  time  of 
the  construction  of  these  fortifications,  perhaps,  to  a  thousand 
years. 

Judge  of  my  surprise  when  on  landing  for  the  first  time  in  the 
midst  of  these  ancient  and  venerable  forests  the  view  of  these  pro- 
digious works  announced  to  me  that  at  a  very  remote  period  these 
places,  now  so  solitary,  had  been  animated  by  the  presence  and 
the  labors  of  a  people  numerous,  industriou-s  and  warlike.  The 
regularity  of  these  fortifications,  the  enormous  quantity  of  earth 
with  which  these  ramparts  and  this  pyramid  have  been  formed, 
all  these  objects,  although  very  striking,  astonished  me,  however, 
much  less  than  the  entire  disappearance  of  this  ancient  people 
and  the  silence  of  tradition. 

It  is  probable  that  this  part  of  the  continent  has  been  greatly 
populated,  for,  if  the  extent  of  these  entrenchments  are  propor- 
tioned to  the  number  of  those  who  defended  them,  it  was  also  to 
that  of  the  assailants.  If  ever  they  have  been  attacked,  I  do  not 
believe  that  the  number  of  the  besieged  and  the  besiegers  could 
have  been  less  than  ten  thousand ;  and  if  one  in  ten  were  then 
soldiers,  the  circumjacent  countries  ought  then  to  contain  one  hun- 
dred thousand  inhabitants." 

In  the  "  Description  of  the  Antiquities  of  the  State  of  Ohio  and 
other  Western  States,"  by  Caleb  Atwater,  are  accounts  of  the 
earthworks  at  Marietta,  from  which  the  following  is  taken  : 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  I  have  quoted  largely  from  Drs.  Cutler 
and  Harris,  not,  however,  without  first  ascertaining  that  their  ac- 
counts were  perfectly  correct  as  to  all  the  facts  which  they  have 
stated. 

The  largest  square,  called  the  town,  contains  forty  acres,  en- 
compassed by  a  wall  of  earth  from  six  to  ten  feet  high,  and  from 
twenty-five  to  thirty  feet  in  breadth  at  the  base. 

On  each  side  are  three  openings  at  equal  distances.  The  en- 
trances at  the  middle  are  the  largest,  particularly  on  the  side  next 
to  the  Muskingum.  From  this  outlet  is  a  covertway  formed  of  two 
parallel  walls  of  earth  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  feet  Distant 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  243 

from  each  other,  measuring  from  centre  to  centre.  The  walls  at 
the  most  elevated  part  on  the  inside  are  twenty-one  feet  high  and 
forty-two  broad  at  the  base,  but  on  the  outside  average  only  five 
feet  in  height.  This  forms  a  passage  of  about  three  hundred  and 
sixty  feet  in  length,  leading  by  a  gradual  descent  to  the  low 
grounds,  where,  at  the  base  of  its  construction,  it  probably  reached 
the  river.  Its  walls  commence  sixty  feet  from  the  ramparts  of 
the  fort  and  increase  in  elevation  as  the  way  descends  towards  the 
river ;  the  bottom  is  crowned  in  the  centre,  in  the  manner  of  a 
well-founded  turnpike  road. 

At  the  northwest  corner  of  the  fort  is  an  oblong,  elevated  square, 
one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  feet  long,  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  feet  broad,  and  nine  feet  high,  level  on  the  summit  and  nearly 
perpendicular  on  the  sides.  At  the  centre  of  each  of  the  sides  a 
ramp  of  earth  about  six  feet  wide  gradually  ascends  to  the  top. 

Near  the  south  wall  is  another  elevated  square  one  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  by  one  hundred  and  twenty,  and  eight  feet  high,  similar 
to  the  others,  except  that  on  the  side  next  to  the  wall  instead  of  a 
ramp  there  is  a  hollow  way  ten  feet  wide,  leading  twenty  feet  to- 
wards the  centre,  and  then  rising  with  a  gentle  slope  to  the  top. 

At  the  southeast  corner  is  a  third  elevated  square  one  hundred 
and  eight  by  fifty-four  feet,  with  ascents  at  the  ends,  but  not  so 
high  nor  so  perfect  as  the  others. 

A  little  to  the  southwest  of  the  centre  of  the  fort  is  a  circular 
mound  about  thirty  feet  in  diameter  and  five  feet  high,  near  which 
are  four  small  excavations  at  equal  distances,  and  opposite  each 
other. 

At  the  southwest  corner  of  the  fort  is  a  semicircular  parapet 
crowned  with  a  mound,  which  guards  the  opening  in  the  wall. 

Towards  the  southeast  is  a  small  fort  containing  twenty  acres, 
with  a  gateway  in  the  centre  of  each  side  and  at  each  corner. 
These  gateways  are  defended  by  circular  mounds.  On  the  out- 
side of  this  smaller  fort  is  a  mound  in  form  of  a  sugar-loaf;  its 
base,  a  regular  circle,  is  one  hundred  and  fifteen  feet  in  diameter ; 
perpendicular  height,  thirty  feet.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  ditch 
four  feet  deep  and  fifteen  feet  wide,  and  defended  by  a  parapet 
four  feet  high,  through  which  is  a  gateway  towards  the  fort  twenty 
feet  wide." 

Some  additional  particulars  by  "Dr.  S.  P.  Hildreth,  of  Marietta, 
date  of  June  8th,  1819: 

"The  principal  excavation,  or  well,  is  as  much  as  sixty  feet  in 
diameter  at  the  surface,  and  when  the  settlement  was  first  made  it 
was  at  least  twenty  feet  deep.  It  is,  at  present,  twelve  or  fourteen 


244  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

feet.  It  was  originally  of  the  kind  formed  in  the  most  early  days, 
when  the  water  waa  brought  up  by  hand  in  pitchers  or  other 
vessels,  by  steps  formed  in  the  sides  of  the  well. 

The  pond,  or  reservoir,  near  the  northwest  corner  of  the  large 
fort  was  about  twenty-five  feet  diameter,  and  the  sides  raised  above 
the  level  of  the  adjoining  surface  by  an  embankment  of  earth 
three  or  four  feet  high.  It  was  nearly  full  at  the  first  settlement 
of  the  town,  and  remained  so  until  the  last  winter,  at  all  seasons 
of  the  year.  When  the  ground  was  cleared  near  the  well  a  great 
many  logs  were  rolled  into  it.  These,  with  the  annual  deposit  of 
leaves  for  ages,  had  filled  the  well  nearly  full,  but  still  the  water 
rose  to  the  surface.  Poles  have  been  pushed  down  into  the  water 
and  deposit  of  rotten  vegetation  to  the  depth  of  thirty  feet.  Last 
winter  the  person  who  owns  the  well  undertook  to  drain  it  by  cut- 
ting a  ditch  from  the  well  into  the  small '  covertway,'  and  he  has 
dug  to  the  depth  of  about  twelve  feet  and  let  the  water  off  to  that 
distance.  He  finds  the  sides  of  the  reservoir  project  gradually 
towards  the  centre  of  the  well  in  the  form  of  an  inverted  cone. 
The  bottom  and  sides,  so  far  as  he  has  examined  them,  are  lined 
with  a  stratum  of  very  fine  ash-colored  clay,  about  eight  or  ten 
inches  in  thickness,  below  which  is  the  common  soil  of  the  place. 

On  the  outside  of  the  parapet,  near  the  oblong  square,  I  picked 
up  a  considerable  number  of  fragments  of  ancient  potter's  ware. 
This  ware  is  ornamented  with  lines,  some  of  them  quite  curious 
and  ingenious,  on  the  outside.  It  is  composed  of  clay  and  fine 
gravel  and  has  a  partial  glazing  on  the  inside.  It  seems  to  have 
been  burnt.  The  fragments,  on  breaking  them,  look  quite  black, 
with  brilliant  particles  appearing  as  you  held  them  to  the  light. 
The  ware  which  I  have  seen,  found  near  the  river,  is  composed  of 
shells  and  clay,  and  not  nearly  so  hard  as  that  found  on  the  plain. 
Several  pieces  of  copper  have  been  found  in  and  near  to  the  ancient 
works,  at  various  times.  One  piece,  from  the  description  I  had  of 
it,  was  in  the  form  of  a  cup  with  low  sides,  the  bottom  very  thick 
and  strong. 

The  places  of  ascent  on  the  sides  of  the  elevated  squares  are  ten 
feet  wide,  instead  of  six,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Harris." 

Another  of  Dr.  Hildreth's  letters,  dated  July  19th,  1819 : 

"  In  removing  the  earth  which  composed  an  ancient  mound  in 
one  of  the  streets  of  Marietta,  in  the  region  of  the  plain,  near  the 
fortifications,  several  curious  articles  were  discovered  the  latter 
part  of  June  last.  They  appear  to  have  been  buried  with  the  body 
of  the  person  to  whose  memory  the  mound  was  erected. 

Lying  immediately  over  or  on  the  forehead  of  the  body  were 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  245 

found  three  large  circular  bosses,  or  ornaments  for  a  sword-belt 
or  buckler ;  they  are  composed  of  copper,  overlaid  with  a  thick 
plate  of  silver.  Their  fronts  are  slightly  convex,  with  a  depression 
like  a  cup,  in  the  centre,  and  measure  two  inches  and  a  quarter 
across  the  face  of  each.  On  the  back  side,  opposite  the  depressed 
portion,  is  a  copper  rivet  or  nail,  around  which  are  two  separate 
plates,  by  which  they  were  fastened  to  the  leather.  Two  small 
pieces  of  leather  were  found  lying  between  the  plates  of  one  of  the 
bosses ;  they  resemble  the  skin  of  an  old  mummy,  and  seemed  to 
have  been  preserved  by  the  salts  of  the  copper.  The  plates  of  cop- 
per are  nearly  reduced  to  an  oxide,  or  rust.  The  silver  looks  quite 
black,  but  is  not  much  corroded,  and,  on  rubbing,  it  becomes  quite 
brilliant.  Two  of  these  are  yet  entire  ;  the  third  one  is  so  much 
wasted  that  it  dropped  in  pieces  on  removing  it  from  the  earth. 
Around  the  rivet  of  one  of  them  is  a  small  quantity  of  flax  or 
hemp  in  a  tolerable  state  of  preservation.  Near  the  side  of  the 
body  was  found  a  plate  of  silver  which  appears  to  have  been  the 
upper  part  of  a  sword  scabbard  ;  it  is  six  inches  in  length  and  two 
inches  in  breadth,  and  weighs  an  ounce ;  it  has  no  ornament  or 
figures,  but  has  three  longitudinal  ridges ;  it  seems  to  have  been 
fastened  to  the  scabbard  by  three  or  four  rivets,  the  holes  of  which 
yet  remain  in  the  silver. 

Two  or  three  broken  pieces  of  a  copper  tube  were  also  found, 
filled  with  iron-rust.  These  pieces,  from  their  appearance,  com- 
posed the  lower  end  of  the  scabbard  near  the  point  of  the  sword. 
No  signs  of  the  sword  itself  were  discovered  except  the  appear- 
ance of  the  rust  above  mentioned. 

Near  the  feet  was  found  a  piece  of  copper  weighing  three  ounces. 
From  its  shape  it  appeared  to  have  been  used  as  a  plumb  or  for  an 
ornament,  as  near  one  of  the  ends  is  a  circular  crease  or  groove 
for  tying  a  thread  ;  it  is  round,  and  two  inches  and  a  half  in  length 
and  an  inch  in  diameter  at  the  centre,  and  half  an  inch  at  each 
end.  It  is  composed  of  small  pieces  of  native  copper  pounded 
together,  and  in  the  cracks  between  the  pieces  are  stuck  several 
pieces  of  silver,  one  near  the  size  of  a  half-dime.  This  copper  or- 
nament was  covered  with  a  coat  of  green  rust,  and  is  considerably 
corroded.  A  piece  of  red-ochre  or  paint,  and  a  piece  of  iron  ore, 
which  has  the  appearance  of  having  been  partially  vitrified,  or 
melted,  were  also  found.  The  ore  is  about  the  specific  gravity  of 
pure  iron. 

The  body  of  the  person  here  buried  was  laid  on  the  surface  of 
the  earth,  with  his  face  upwards,  and  his  feet  towards  the  north- 
east, and  head  towards  the  southwest.  From  the  appearance  of 


246  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

several  pieces  of  charcoal  and  bits  of  partially  burnt  fossil  coal 
and  the  black  color  of  the  earth,  it  would  seem  that  the  funeral 
obsequies  had  been  celebrated  by  fire ;  a  circle  of  thin,  flat  stones 
had  been  laid  around  and  over  the  body.  The  circular  covering 
is  about  eight  feet  in  diameter,  and  the  stones  yet  look  black,  as 
if  stained  by  fire  and  smoke.  This  circle  of  stones  appears  to 
have  been  the  nucleus  on  which  the  mound  was  formed,  as  imme- 
diately over  them  is  heaped  the  common  earth  of  the  adjacent 
plain,  composed  of  clay,  sand  and  coarse  gravel.  This  mound 
must  originally  have  been  about  ten  feet  high  and  thirty  feet  in 
diameter  at  its  base.  At  the  time  of  opening  it  the  height  was  six 
feet  and  the  diameter  between  thirty  and  forty.  It  has  every  ap- 
pearance of  being  as  old  as  any  in  the  neighborhood,  and  was,  at 
the  first  settlement  of  Marietta,  covered  with  large  trees,  the  re- 
mains of  whose  roots  were  yet  apparent  in  digging  away  the  earth. 
It  also  seems  to  have  been  made  for  this  single  personage,  as  the 
remains  of  one  skeleton  only  was  discovered.  The  bones  were 
much  decayed,  and  many  of  them  crumbled  to  dust  on  exposure 
to  the  air.  From  the  length  of  some  of  them,  it  is  supposed  the 
person  was  about  six  feet  in  height.  Nothing  unusual  was  dis- 
covered in  their  form,  except  that  those  of  the  skull  were  uncom- 
monly thick." 

In  another  letter  of  the  same  year,  of  a  later  date,  Dr.  Hildreth 
says:  "In  addition  to  the  articles  found  at  Marietta,  I  have  pro- 
cured from  a  mound  on  the  Little  Muskingum,  about  four  miles 
from  Marietta,  some  pieces  of  copper,  which  appear  to  have  been 
the  front  part  of  a  helmet.  It  was,  originally,  about  eight  inches 
long  and  four  broad,  and  has  marks  of  having  been  attached  to 
leather;  it  is  much  decayed,  and  is  now  quite  a  thin  plate.  A 
copper  ornament,  in  imitation  of  those  described  as  found  at 
Marietta,  was  discovered  with  the  plate,  and  appears  to  have  been 
attached  to  the  centre  of  it  by  a  rivet,  the  hole  for  which  remains 
both  in  the  plate  and  ornament.  At  this  place  the  remains  of  a 
skeleton  were  found.  No  part  of  it  retained  its  form  but  a  por- 
tion of  the  forehead  and  the  skull,  which  lay  under  the  plate  of 
copper.  These  bones  are  deeply  tinged  with  green,  and  appear  to 
have  been  preserved  by  the  salts  of  copper. 

The  mound  in  which  these  relics  were  found  is  about  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  one  in  Marietta,  and  has  every  appearance  of  being 
as  ancient.  It  seems  to  be  a  well-established  fact  that  the  bodies 
of  nearly  all  those  buried  in  mounds  were  partially  if  not  en- 
tirely consumed  by  fire  before  the  mounds  were  built.  This  is 
made  to  appear  by  quantities  of  charcoal  being  found  at  the  cen- 


CHAP.  XXII.]  OP    AMERICA.  247 

tre  and  base  of  the  mounds,  stones  burnt  and  blackened,  and 
marks  of  fire  on  the  metallic  substance  buried  with  them.  On  no 
one  of  the  articles  yet  found  has  been  discovered  any  letters, 
characters,  or  hieroglyphics  which  would  point  to  what  nation 
or  age  these  people  belonged." 

As  the  Marietta  ancient  earthworks  were  the  most  perfect  and 
most  magnificent  of  any  north  of  Mexico,  I  thought  their  impor- 
tance merited  the  attention  I  have  given  them. 

The  letter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Doddridge,  of  Brooke  County,  Vir- 
ginia, to  Mr.  Atwater  contains  the  following  in  regard  to  the 
antiquities  at  Grave  Creek : 

"  WILLIAMSBURG,  Va.,  May  27th,  1819. 

DEAR  SIR:  Grave  Creek  Flat  is  about  eleven  miles  below 
Wheeling.  It  is  about  two  miles  square,  consisting,  the  most 
part,  of  a  second  bottom,  the  most  ancient  alluvion ;  about  the 
middle  of  it  Little  Grave  Creek  puts  onto  the  Ohio,  and  Great 
Grave  Creek  at  the  lower  end  of  the  flat.  Between  these  creeks 
stand  the  ancient  works,  at  the  distance  of  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  from  the  Ohio. 

The  '  fortifications,'  as  they  are  called,  are  not  remarkable 
ones,  though  a  number  of  small  mounds  stand  among  them.  In 
one  of  the  tumuli,  which  was  opened  about  twenty  years  since, 
sixty  copper  beads  were  found.  Of  these  I  procured  ten.  They 
were  made  of  a  coarse  wire,  which  appeared  to  have  been  ham- 
mered out,  and  not  .drawn,  and  were  cut  off  at  unequal  lengths. 
They  were  soldered  together  in  an  awkward  manner,  the  centre 
of  some  of  them  uniting  with  the  edges  of  others.  They  were 
incrusted  with  verdigris,  but  the  inside  of  them  was  pure  copper. 

The  '  Big  Grave.'  as  it  is  called,  stands  about  halfway  between 
the  two  creeks,  and  about  a  fourth  of  a  mile  from  the  (Ohio)  river. 
It  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  august  monuments  of  remote  an- 
tiquity anywhere  to  be  found.  Its  circumference,  at  the  base,  is 
three  hundred  yards ;  its  diameter  of  course  one  hundred.  Its 
altitude,  from  measurement,  is  ninety  feet;  and  its  diameter  at 
the  summit  is  forty-five  feet.  The  centre  at  the  summit  appears 
to  have  sunk  several  feet,  so  as  to  form  a  kind  of  small  amphi- 
theatre. The  rim,  including  this  amphitheatre,  is  seven  or  eight 
feet  in  thickness.  On  the  south  side,  in  its  edge,  stands  a  large 
beech  tree,  whose  bark  is  marked  with  the  initials  of  a  great  num- 
ber of  visitants. 

This  lofty  and  venerable  tumulus  has  been  so  far  opened  as 
to  ascertain  that  it  contains  many  thousands  of  human  skeletons, 


248  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

but  no  farther.  The  proprietor  of  the  ground  will  not  suffer  its 
demolition  in  the  smallest  degree.  I,  for  one,  do  him  honor  for 
his  sacred  regard  for  these  works  of  antiquity. 

A  careful  survey  of  the  above-mentioned  works  would  prob- 
ably show  that  they  were  all  connected,  and  formed  but  parts  of  a 
whole,  laid  out  with  taste." 

From  a  work  entitled  "  Virginia,  its  History  and  Antiquities," 
is  taken  the  following :  "  Grave  Creek  was  first  settled  in  1770  by 
Joseph  Tomlinson,  an  emigrant  from  Maryland.  In  1772  he  dis- 
covered the  mammoth  mound  at  this  place,  and  about  this  time 
several  other  families  from  Maryland  emigrated  here.  During  the 
succeeding  years  the  inhabitants  suffered  considerably  from  the 
Indians,  and  erected  forts  for  their  security." 

From  Mr.  Tomlinson 's  communication  in  the  "American  Pio- 
neer "  we  derive  the  following  facts :  "  The  mammoth  mound  is 
sixty -nine  feet  high,  and  about  nine  hundred  feet  in  circumfer- 
ence at  its  base.  It  is  a  frustum  of  a  cone,  and  has  a  flat  top 
about  fifty  feet  in  diameter.  This  flat,  until  lately,  was  slightly 
depressed,  occasioned,  it  is  supposed,  by  the  falling  in  of  two  vaults 
below.  A  few  years  since  a  white  oak,  about  seventy  feet  in  height, 
stood  on  the  summit  of  the  mound,  which  appeared  to  have  died 
of  old  age.  On  carefully  cutting  the  trunk  transversely,  the 
number  of  concentric  circles  showed  that  it  was  about  five  hun- 
dred years  old. 

In  1838,  Mr.  Tomlinson  commenced  at  the  level  of  the  sur- 
rounding ground,  and  ran  in  an  excavation  horizontally  one  hun- 
dred and  eleven  feet,  when  he  came  to  a  vault.  This  vault  was 
twelve  feet  long,  eight  wide,  and  seven  high.  It  was  dry  as  any 
tight  room.  Along  each  side  and  the  two  ends  stood  upright 
timbers,  which  had  supported  transverse  timbers  forming  the  ceil- 
ing. Over  the  timbers  had  been  placed  unhewn  stones,  but  the 
decay  of  the  timbers  occasioned  the  fall  of  the  stones  and  the 
superincumbent  earth,  so  as  to  nearly  fill  the  vault.  In  this 
vault  were  found  two  skeletons,  one  of  which  was  devoid  of  orna- 
ment ;  the  other  was  surrounded  by  six  hundred  and  fifty  ivory 
beads,  resembling  button-moles,  and  an  ivory  ornament  about  six 
inches  in  length,  which  is  one  inch  and  five-eighths  wide  at  the 
centre,  half  an  inch  wide  at  the  ends,  and  on  one  side  flat  and  on 
the  other  oval-shaped.  A  singular  exudation  of  animal  matter 
overhangs  the  roof  of  this  vault. 

Another  excavation  was  commenced  at  the  top  of  the  mound, 
downwards.  Midway  between  the  top  and  the  bottom,  and  over 
the  vault  above  described,  a  second  and  similar  vault  was  discov- 


'  CHAP.  XXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  249 

ered,  and,  like  that,  caved  in  by  the  falling  of  the  ceiling,  timbers 
and  stones,  etc.  In  the  upper  vault  was  found  the  singular  hiero- 
glyphic stone,  hereafter  described,  seventeen  hundred  ivory  beads, 
five  hundred  sea-shells,  of  the  involute  species,  that  were  worn  as 
beads,  and  five  copper  bracelets  about  the  wrists  of  the  skeleton. 
The  shells  and  beads  were  about  the  neck  and  breast  of  the  skele- 
ton, and  there  were  also  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of 
mica  strewn  over  the  body. 

The  mound  is  composed  of  the  same  kind  of  earth  as  that  around 
it,  being  a  fine  loamy  sand,  but  differs  very  much  in  color  from 
that  of  the  natural  ground.  After  penetrating  about  eight  feet 
with  the  first  or  horizontal  excavation,  blue  spots  began  to  appear 
in  the  earth  of  which  the  mound  was  composed.  On  close  ex- 
amination these  spots  were  found  to  contain  ashes  and  bits  of 
burnt  bones.  These  spots  increased  as  they  approached  the  centre; 
at  the  distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  within,  the  spots 
were  so  numerous  and  condensed  as  to  give  the  earth  a  clouded 
appearance,  and  excited  the  admiration  of  all  who  saw  it.  Every 
part  of  the  mound  presents  the  same  appearance  except  near  the 
surface.  The  blue  spots  were  probably  occasioned  by  depositing 
the  remains  of  the  bodies  consumed  by  fire.* 

In  addition  to  the  relics  in  the  mammoth  mound,  there  has  been 
a  great  number  and  variety  of  relics  found  in  the  neighborhood. 
Many  of  them  were  discovered  with  skeletons,  which  were  nearly 
decayed.  Mr.  Tomlinson  has  some  beads  found  about  two  miles 
from  this  great  mound  that  are  evidently  a  kind  of  porcelain,  and 
very  similar,  if  not  identical,  in  substance  with  the  artificial  teeth 
set  by  dentists.  He  has  also  an  image  of  stone,  found,  with  other 
relics,  about  eight  miles  distant.  It  is  in  human  shape,  sitting  in 
a  cramped  position,  the  face  and  eyes  projecting  upwards.  The 
nose  is  what  is  called  Roman.  On  the  crown  of  the  head  is  a 
knot  in  which  the  hair  is  concentrated  and  tied.  The  head  and 
features  particularly  is  a  display  of  great  workmanship  and  inge- 
nuity. It  is  eleven  inches  in  height,  but  if  it  were  straight  would 
be  double  that  height.  It  is  generally  believed  to  have  been  an 
idol." 

From  the  same  book  is  the  following  : — 

Mr.  Henry  R.  Schoolcraft  visited  Grave  Creek  in  August,  1843, 
and  devoted  several  days  to  the  examination  of  the  antique  works 
of  art  at  that  place.  We  were  subsequently  at  Grave  Creek,  and 

*  May  they  not  have  been  remains  of  victims  sacrificed  at  the  funeral  of  this 
entombed  chief? 


250  THE   INDIAN   AND   ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXII. 

obtained  an  impression  in  wax  of  the  hieroglyphical  stone  to 
which  he  alludes.  An  accurate  engraving  from  this  impression 
we  insert  in  its  proper  place.  The  result  of  Mr.  Schoolcraft's  in- 
vestigations is  partially  given  below  : 

"  I  have  devoted  several  days  to  the  examination  of  the  anti- 
quities of  this  place.  The  most  prominent  object  of  curiosity  is 
the  great  mound.  It  is  but  one  of  a  series  of  mounds  and  other 
evidences  of  ancient  occupation  at  this  point  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary interest.  I  have  visited  and  examined  seven  mounds  situa- 
ted within  a  short  distance  of  each  other.  They  occupy  the 
summit  level  of  a  rich  alluvial  plain  stretching  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  Ohio,  between  the  junction  of  the  Big  and  the  Little  Grave 
creeks  with  that  stream.  They  appear  to  have  been  connected  by 
low  earthen  entrenchments,  of  which  plain  traces  are  still  visible 
on  some  parts  of  the  commons.  They  include  a  well,  stoned  up 
in  the  usual  manner,  which  is  now  filled  with  rubbish. 

The  summit  of  this  plain  is  probably  seventy-five  feet  above  the 
present  summit-level  of  the  Ohio.  It  constitutes  the  second  bench 
or  rise  of  land  above  the  water.  It  is  on  one  of  the  most  elevated 
parts  of  the  summit  that  the  great  tumulus  stands.  The  circum- 
ference of  the  base  has  been  stated  at  a  little  less  than  nine  hun- 
dred feet ;  the  height  is  sixty-nine  feet. 

The  most  interesting  object  of  antiquarian  inquiry  is  a  small, 
flat  stone,  inscribed  with  antique  alphabetic  characters,  which  was 
disclosed  on  opening  the  mound.  These  characters  are  in  the 
ancient  rock-alphabet  of  sixteen  right  and  acute-angled  single 
strokes  used  by  the  Pelasgi  and  other  early  Mediterranean  nations, 
and  which  is  the  parent  of  the  modern  Runic  as  well  as  the  Bardic. 
It  is  now  some  four  or  five  years  since  the  completion  of  these  ex- 
cavations, so  far  as  they  have  been  made,  and  the  discovery  of  this 
relic.  Several  copies  of  it  soon  got  abroad,  which  differed  from 
each  other,  and,  as  it  was  supposed,  from  the  original.  This  con- 
jecture is  true.  Neither  the  print  published  in  the  '  Cincinnati 
Gazette'  in  1839,  nor  that  in  the  '  American  Pioneer'  in  1843,  is 
correct.  I  have  terminated  this  uncertainty  by  taking  copies  by  a 
scientific  process,  which  does  not  leave  the  lines  and  figures  to  the 
uncertainty  of  a  man's  pencil. 

I  rode  out  yesterday  three  miles  back,  to  the  range  of  high  hills 
which  encompass  this  sub-valley,  to  see  a  rude  tower  of  stone  stand- 
ing on  an  elevated  point  called  Parr's  Point,  which  commands  a 
view  of  the  whole  plain,  and  which  appears  to  have  been  con- 
structejd  as  a  watch-tower  or  lookout,  from  which  to  descry  an  ap- 
proaching enemy.  It  is  much  dilapidated.  About  six  or  seven 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  OT    AMERICA.  251 

feet  of  the  work  is  still  entire.  It  is  circular,  and  composed  of 
rough  stones  laid  without  mortar  or  the  mark  of  a  hammer.  A 
heavy  mass  of  fallen  walls  lies  around,  covering  an  area  of  some 
forty  feet  in  diameter.  Two  similar  points  of  observation  occupied 
by  dilapidated  towers  are  represented  to  exist,  one  at  the  promi- 
nent summit  of  the  Ohio  and  Grave  creek  hills,  and  another  on 
the  promontory  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Ohio,  in  Belmont 
county,  Ohio. 

It  is  well  known  to  all  acquainted  with  the  warlike  habits  of 
our  Indians  that  they  never  evince  the  foresight  to  post  a  regular 
sentry,  and  these  rude  towers  may  be  regarded  as  of  cotempora- 
neous  age  with  the  interment  of  the  inscription. 

Several  polished  tubes  of  stone  have  been  found  in  one  of  the 
lesser  mounds,  the  use  of  which  is  not  very  apparent.  One  of 
these,  now  on  my  table,  is  twelve  inches  long,  one  and  a  fourth 
wide  at  one  end  and  one  and  a-half  at  the  other.  It  is  made  of  a 
fine,'  compact,  lead-blue  stealite,  mottled,  and  has  been  constructed 
by  boring,  in  the  manner  of  a  gun-barrel.  This  boring  is  con- 
tinued to  within  about  three-eighths  of  an  inch  of  the  larger  end, 
through  which  but  a  small  aperture  is  left.  If  this  small  aperture 
be  looked  through,  objects  at  a  distance  are  more  clearly  seen. 
The  degree  of  art  evinced  in  its  construction  is  far  from  rude.  By 
inserting  a  wooden  rod  and  valve,  this  tube  would  be  converted 
into  a  powerful  syringe." 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

Tumuli — The  American  Bottom — The  Mounds  of  Cahokia — The  Mounds  of 
St.  Louis — The  Mummy  of  Tennessee — The  Mounds  of  St.  Charles — The 
Trinity  Mounds. 

IN  speaking  of  American  antiquities,  I  prefer  to  quote  the  ear- 
liest writers  in  regard  to  these,  for  they  had  certain  advantages  over 
those  who  subsequently  visited  them,  for  by  the  settlement  of  the 
country  considerable  changes  have  been  made  in  them,  and  some 
monuments  that  then  existed  have  disappeared.  Breckenridge 
wrote  in  1811,  and  he  thus  speaks  of  the  mounds  of  the  American 
Bottom : 

"  To  form  a  more  correct  idea  of  these,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
give  the  reader  some  idea  of  the  tract  of  country  in  which  they  are 
situated.  The  American  Bottom  is  a  tract  of  rich  alluvium  land 


252  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXIII. 

extending  on  the  Mississippi  from  Kaskaskia  to  the  Cahokia  river, 
about  eighty  miles  in  length  and  five  in  breadth.  Several  hand- 
some streams  meander  through  it,  the  soil  of  the  richest  kind,  and 
but  little  subject  to  the  effects  of  the  Mississippi  floods.  A  num- 
ber of  lakes  are  interspersed  through  it,  with  high  and  fine  banks. 
These  abound  in  fish,  and,  in  the  autumn,  are  visited  by  millions 
of  wild  fowl.  There  is  perhaps  no  spot  (of  the  same  area)  in  the 
western  country  capable  of  being  more  highly  cultivated  or  of  giv- 
ing support  to  a  more  numerous  population  than  this  valley.  If 
any  vestige  of  ancient  population  were  to  be  found,  this  would  be 
the  place  to  search  for  it.  Accordingly  this  tract,  as  also  the  bank 
of  the  river  on  the  western  side,  exhibits  proofs  of  an  immense 
population.*  If  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  its  environs  were  de- 
serted there  would  not  be  more  numerous  traces  of  human  exist- 
ence. The  great  number  of  mounds,  and  the  astonishing  quan- 
tity of  human  bones  everywhere  dug  up  or  found  on  the  surface 
of  the  ground,  with  a  thousand  other  appearances,  announce' that 
this  valley  was,  at  one  period,  filled  with  habitations  and  villages. 
The  whole  face  of  the  bluff  or  hill,  which  bounds  it  on  the  east, 
appears  to  have  been  a  continued  burial-ground.f 

But  the  most  remarkable  appearances  are  two  groups  of  mounds 
or  pyramids,  the  one  about  ten  miles  above  Cahokia,  the  other 
nearly  the  same  distance  below  it,  which  in  all  exceed  one  hun- 

*  "  The  Saline,  below  St.  Genevieve,  cleared  out  some  time  ago,  and  deep- 
ened, was  found  to  contain  wagon-loads  of  earthenware.  Some  fragments  be- 
speak vessels  as  large  as  a  barrel,  and  proving  that  the  Salines  had  been  worked 
before  they  were  known  to  the  whites."  Breckenridge's  note. 

I  may  add  that  similar  discoveries  have  been  made  on  the  Red  river  of  Ken- 
tucky and  on  the  Saline  river  of  Illinois. — B.  S. 

t  Yet  in  June,  1844,  a  great  flood  took  place  in  the  Mississippi.  About  the 
8th  or  10th  the  river  commenced  to  rise  rapidly.  By  the  16th  the  curbstones  of 
Front  Street,  St.  Louis,  were  under  water.  Illinois  and  Brooklyn  were  nearly 
submerged,  the  occupants  of  the  houses  being  driven  to  the  upper  stories.  The 
American  Bottom  was  a  turbid  sea.  The  town  of  Naples  was  inundated,  boats 
plying  in  the  streets.  The  river  reached  its  greatest  height  at  St.  Louis  on  the 
24th  of  June,  when  it  was  seven  feet  seven  inches  above  the  city  directrix.  The 
water  in  its  abatement  did  not  reach  the  city  directrix  until  the  14th  of  July. 
The  rise  of  1844  reached  a  higher  elevation  than  any  previous  flood  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi at  this  point.  The  great  flood  of  1785  was  surpassed,  as  were  also  the 
floods  of  1811  and  1826.  (L.  N.  Reevis.) 

I  was  at  St.  Louis  at  the  height  of  the  flood  of  1844,  when  steamboats  made 
pleasure  excursions  over  the  American  Bottom,  and  yet  this  bottom  was  anciently 
densely  populated  (probably  more  than  a  thousand  years  before)  ;  and  so  was 
Egypt  thousands  of  years  before  that  date,  and  yet  annually  flooded  by  the  Nile. 
— B.  S. 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  %  OF.    AMERICA.  253 

dred  and  fifty,  of  various  sizes.  The  western  side  also  contains  a 
considerable  number. 

I  examined  with  great  care  the  mounds  near  St.  Louis,  and, 
hearing  of  others  of  a  more  remarkable  character  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  river,  I  took  my  rifle  and  crossed  over,  intending  to 
pass  a  day  or  two  among  them,  and  was  highly  delighted  with 
what  I  saw.  They  were  situated  in  a  vast  alluvial  plain  about  six 
miles  in  width,  stretching  to  the  river-hills;  and  the  first  were 
about  two  miles  from  the  Mississippi,  and  then  continued  at  inter- 
vals, in  a  diagonal  direction,  until  I  reached  the  principal  mound 
and  group  near  the  margin  of  a  narrow  but  deep  stream  which 
traverses  the  immense  body  of  fertile  land  usually  called  the 
American  Bottom,  and  not  less  than  eighty  or  a  hundred  miles 
in  length.  I  was  seized  with  astonishment  as  I  ascended  the 
large  mound. 

At  the  time  of  my  first  visit  there  was  no  one  living  within 
many  miles  of  the  place,  but  in  a  second  visit,  the  year  following, 
I  found  a  colony  of  the  monks  of  La  Trappe  established  in  the 
midst  of  them,  their  dwellings  occupying  a  smaller  mound,  a 
hundred  yards  west  of  the  great  mound  of  Cahokia.* 

A  more  minute  description  of  those  above  Cahokia,  which  I 
visited  in  the  fall  (November)  of  1811,  will  give  a  tolerable  idea 
of  them  all. 

I  crossed  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Louis,  and  after  passing  through 
the  wood  which  borders  the  river,  about  half  a  mile  in  width, 
entered  an  extensive  open  plain.  In  fifteen  minutes  I  found  my- 
self in  the  midst  of  a  group  of  mounds,  mostly  of  circular  shape, 
and  at  a  distance  resembling  enormous  haystacks  scattered  through 
a  meadow.  One  of  the  largest,  which  I  ascended,  was  about  two 
hundred  paces  in  circumference  at  the  base,  the  form  nearly  square, 
though  it  had  evidently  undergone  considerable  alteration  from 
the  washing  of  the  rains.  The  top  was  level,  with  an  area  suf- 
ficient to  contain  several  hundred  men. 

The  prospect  from  this  mound  is  very  beautiful,  looking  towards 
the  bluffs,  which  are  dimly  seen  at  the  distance  of  six  or  eight 
miles.  The  bottom  at  this  place  being  very  wide,  I  had  a  level 
plain  before  me,  varied  by  islets  of  wood  and  a  few  solitary  trees ; 
to  the  right  the  prairie  is  bounded  by  the  horizon ;  to  the  left  the 
curve  of  the  Cahokia  may  be  distinguished  by  the  margin  of  wood 
upon  its  banks  and  crossing  the  valley  diagonally  south-south- 
west. Around  me  I  counted  forty-five  mounds  or  pyramids,  be- 
i 

*  "Views  of  Louisiana"  and  "Recollections  of  the  West,"  by  H.  M.  Breck- 
enridge. 


254  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

sides  a  great  number  of  small  artificial  elevations.  These  mounds 
form  something  more  than  a  semicircle,  about  a  mile  in  extent, 
the  open  space  on  the  river. 

Pursuing  my  walk  along  the  banks  of  the  Cahokia,  I  passed 
eight  others,  in  the  distance  of  three  miles,  before  I  arrived  at  the 
largest  assemblage.  When  I  reached  the  foot  of  the  principal 
mound,  I  was  struck  with  a  degree  of  astonishment,  not  unlike 
that  which  is  experienced  in  contemplating  the  Egyptian  Pyra- 
mids. What  a  stupendous  pile  of  earth  !  To  heap  up  such  a  mass 
must  have  required  years  and  the  labor  of  thousands.  It  stands 
immediately  on  the  bank  of  the  Cahokia,  and,  on  the  side  next 
it,  is  covered  with  lofty  trees.  Were  it  not  for  the  regularity  and 
design  which  it  manifests,  the  circumstance  of  its  being  in  alluvial 
ground,  and  other  mounds  scattered  around  it,  we  could  scarcely 
believe  it  the  work  of  human  hands.  The  shape  is  that  of  a  paral- 
lelogram standing  from  north  to  south  ;  on  the  south  side  there  is 
a  broad  apron  or  step,  about  half  way  down,  and  from  this  another 
projection  into  the  plain,  about  fifteen  feet  wide,  which  was  prob- 
ably intended  as  an  ascent  to  the  mound.  By  stepping  around 
the  base,  I  computed  the  circumference  to  be  at  least  eight  hun- 
dred yards,  and  the  height  of  the  mound  about  ninety  feet.  The 
step  or  apron  has  been  used  as  a  kitchen-garden  by  the  monks  of 
La  Trappe  settled  near  this,  and  the  top  is  sown  with  wheat. 
Nearly  west  there  is  another  of  a  smaller  size,  and  forty  others 
scattered  through  the  plain.  Two  are  also  seen  on  the  bluff,  at 
the  distance  of  three  miles.  Several  of  these  mounds  are  almost 
conical.  As  the  sward  had  been  burnt,  the  earth  was  perfectly 
naked,  and  I  could  trace  with  ease  any  unevenness  of  surface,  so 
as  to  discover  whether  it  was  artificial  or  accidental.  I  everywhere 
observed  a  great  number  of  small  elevations  of  earth  to  the  height 
of  a  few  feet,  at  regular  distances  from  each  other,  and  which 
appeared  to  observe  some  order.  Near  them  I  also  observed 
pieces  of  flint  and  fragments  of  earthen  vessels.  I  concluded  that 
a  very  populous  town  had  once  existed  here,  similar  to  those  of 
Mexico  described  by  the  first  conquerors.  The  mounds  were  sites 
of  temples,  or  monuments  to  the  great  men.  It  is  evident  that  this 
could  never  have  been  the  work  of  thinly-scattered  tribes. 

Hunter  and  Dunbar  describe  a  mound  at  the  junction  of  the 
Catahoula,  Washita  and  Tensas  rivers  very  similar  in  shape  to 
the  large  one  at  Cahokia.  I  saw  it  last  summer.*  It  has  a  step 
or  apron,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  group  of  ten  or  twelve  other 

*  The  copyright  of  "Views  of  Louisiana"  is  dated  1813. 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  .  OF    AMERICA.  255 

mounds  of  a  smaller  size.  In  the  vicinity  of  New  Madrid  there 
are  a  number ;  one,  on  the  bank  of  a  lake,  is  at  least  four  hundred 
yards  in  circumference,  and  surrounded  by  a  ditch  at  least  ten 
feet  wide,  and  at  present  five  feet  deep ;  it  is  about  forty  feet  in 
height  and  level  on  the  top.  I  have  frequently  examined  the 
mounds  at  St.  Louis;  they  are  situated  on  the  second  bank,  just 
above  the  town,  and  disposed  in  a  singular  manner;  there  are 
nine  in  all,  and  form  three  sides  of  a  parallelogram,  the  open  side 
towards  the  country  being  protected,  however,  by  three  smaller 
mounds  placed  in  a  circular  manner.  The  space  enclosed  is 
about  four  hundred  yards  in  length,  and  two  hundred  in  breadth. 
About  six  hundred  yards  above  there  is  a  single  mound  with  a 
broad  stage  on  the  river  side ;  it  is  thirty  feet  in  height,  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  in  length.  The  top  is  a  mere  ridge  of  five  or 
six  feet  wide.  Below  the  first  mounds  there  is  a  curious  work, 
called  the  Falling  Garden.  Advantage  is  taken  of  the  second 
bank,  nearly  fifty  feet  in  height  at  this  place,  and  three  regular 
stages  or  steps  are  formed  by  earth  brought  from  a  distance. 
This  work  is  much  admired — it  suggests  the  idea  of  a  place  of 
assembly  for  the  purpose  of  counseling  on  public  occasions." 

Although  similar  sentiments  have  been  herein  expressed  be- 
fore, yet  the  opinion  of  such  a  man  as  H.  M.  Breckenridge  should 
give  additional  force  to  them,  and  therefore  his  reflections  are 
here  given  as  expressed  by  him  in  his  "  Views  of  Louisiana."  He 
says  : — "  In  tracing  the  origin  of  institutions  or  inventions  amongst 
men,  we  are  apt  to  forget  that  nations,  however  diversified  by 
manners  and  language,  are  yet  of  the  same  species,  and  that  the 
same  institutions  may  originate  among  twenty  different  people. 
Adair  takes  great  pains  to  prove  a  similarity  of  customs  between 
the  American  tribes  and  the  Jews.  Lapiteau  shows  the  existence 
of  a  still  greater  number  common  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The 
result  to  the  philosophic  mind  is  no  more  than  this,  that  the 
American  tribes  belong  to  the  human  race,  and  that  men,  with- 
out any  intercourse  with  each  other,  will,  in  innumerable  in- 
stances, fall  upon  the  same  mode  of  acting.  The  wonder  would 
be  that  they  should  not  show  a  resemblance.  We  find  these 
mounds  in  every  part  of  the  globe.  In  the  north  of  Europe  and 
in  Great  Britain  they  are  numerous,  and  much  resemble  ours, 
but  less  considerable.  The  pyramids  of  Egypt  are  perhaps  the 
oldest  monuments  of  human  labor  in  that  country,  so  favorable 
for  the  production  of  a  numerous  population.  The  pyramids  of 
Mexico,  which  are  but  little  known,  and  yet  scarcely  less  consid- 
erable, like  those  of  Egypt,  have  their  origin  hid  in  the  night  of 


256  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

oblivion.  Humboldt  is  of  opinion  that  '  these  edifices  must  be 
classed  with  the  pyramidal  monuments  of  Asia,  of  which  traces 
were  found  even  in  Arcadia,  for  the  conical  mausoleum  of  Cal- 
listus  was  a  true  tumulus,  covered  with  fruit  trees,  and  served  as 
a  base  to  a  small  temple  consecrated  to  Diana.'  The  great  altar 
of  Jupiter  at  Olympus  was  nothing  more  than  a  huge  mound  of 
earth,  with  stone  steps  to  ascend.  Humboldt  remarks  with  aston- 
ishment the  similarity  of  the  Asiatic  and  Egyptian  pyramids  to 
those  of  Mexico.  The  similarity  of  those  which  he  describes*  to 
the  mounds  or  pyramids  on  the  Mississippi  is  still  more  striking, 
but  not  a  matter  of  so  much  wonder.  The  only  difference  is  that 
a  few  of  the  Mexican  pyramids  are  larger,  and  some  appear  to 
have  been  faced  with  stone  or  brick. 

Like  those  of  Mexico,  wherever  there  has  been  a  considerable 
town  we  find  two  large  pyramids,  supposed  to  represent  the  sun 
and  the  moon,  and  a  number  of  smaller  ones  to  represent  the 
stars.  There  is  very  little  doubt  but  that  they  originated  with  the 
same  people,  for  they  may  be  considered  as  existing  in  the  same 
country. 

A  curious  discovery  made  a  few  years  ago  in  the  State  of 
Tennessee  proves  beyond  doubt  that  at  some  remote  period  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi  had  been  inhabited  by  a  people  much 
more  civilized  than  those  first  known  to  us.  Two  human  bodies 
were  found  in  a  copperas  cave  in  a  surprising  state  of  preservation. 
They  were  first  wrapped  up  in  a  kind  of  blanket,  supposed  to  have 
been  manufactured  of  the  lint  of  nettles,  afterwards  with  dressed 
skins,  and  then  a  mat  of  nearly  sixty  yards  in  length.  They  were 
clad  in  a  beautiful  cloth,  interwoven  with  feathers,  such  as  was 
manufactured  by  the  Mexicans.  They  had  been  here  perhaps  for 
centuries,  and  certainly  were  of  a  different  race  from  the  modern 
Indians/'f 

Timothy  Flint,  who  saw  one  of  these  mummies,  thus  speaks  of 
it  in  his  "  Recollections  :  "  "  The  two  bodies  that  were  found  in 
the  vast  limestone  cave  in  Tennessee,  one  of  which  I  saw  at  Lex- 
ington, were  neither  of  them  more  than  four  feet  in  height.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  they  must  have  been  nearly  the  height  of  the 
living  person.  The  teeth  and  nails  did  not  seem  to  indicate  the 
shrinking  of  the  flesh  from  them  in  the  desiccating  process  by 
which  they  were  preserved.  The  teeth  were  separated  by  consid- 

*  Mexican  Teocallis.  In  the  eighty-four  years  that  have  elapsed  since  Breck- 
enridge  wrote  the  above,  great  researches  and  discoveries  have  been  made  in 
Egypt 

f  Breckenridge's  "Views  of  Louisiana,"  p.  190. 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  •  OF    AMERICA.  257 

erable  intervals,  and  were  small,  white  and  sharp.  The  hair 
seemed  to  have  been  sandy,  or  inclined  to  yellow.*  It  is  well 
known  that  nothing  is  so  uniform  in  the  present  Indian  as  his 
lank,  black  hair.  From  the  pains  taken  to  preserve  the  bodies, 
and  the  great  labor  of  making  the  funeral  robes  in  which  they 
were  folded,  they  must  have  been  of  the  '  blood  royal '  or  persons 
of  great  consideration  in  their  day.  The  person  that  I  saw  had 
evidently  died  by  a  blow  on  the  skull.  The  blood  had  coagulated 
there  into  a  mass  of  texture  and  color  sufficiently  marked  to  show 
that  it  had  been  blood.  The  envelope  of  the  body  was  double. 
Two  splendid  blankets,  completely  woven  with  the  most  beautiful 
feathers  of  the  wild  turkey,  arranged  in  regular  stripes  and  copart- 
ments,  encircled  it.  The  cloth  on  which  these  feathers  were  woven 
was  a  kind  of  linen  of  neat  texture,  of  the  same  kind  with  that 
which  is  now  woven  from  the  fibre  of  the  nettle.  The  body  was 
evidently  that  of  a  female  of  middle  age,  and  I  should  suppose 
that  her  majesty  weighed,  when  I  saw  her,  six  or  eight  pounds."f 
"  You  will  expect  me,"  says  Flint,  "  to  say  something  of  the 
lonely  records  of  the  former  races  that  inhabited  this  country. 
That  there  has  formerly  been  a  much  more  numerous  population 
than  exists  here  at  present,  I  am  fully  impressed  from  the  result 
of  my  own  personal  observation.  From  the  highest  points  of  the 
Ohio  to  where  I  am  now  writing,!  and  far  up  the  Upper  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Missouri,  the  same  country  is  explored  and  peopled, 
and  the  more  its  surface  is  penetrated  not  only  are  there  more 
mounds  brought  to  view,  but  more  incontestable  marks  of  a  nu- 
merous population.  Wells  artificially  walled,  different  struc- 
tures of  convenience  or  defence,  have  been  found  in  such  numbers 
as  no  longer  to  excite  curiosity.  Ornaments  of  silver  and  of  cop- 
per, pottery,  of  which  I  have  seen  numberless  specimens  in  all 
these  waters,  not  .to  mention  the  mounds  themselves,  and  the  still 
more  tangible  evidences  of  human  bodies  found  in  a  state  of  pres- 
ervation, and  of  sepulchres  full  of  bones,  are  unquestionable 
demonstrations  that  this  country  was  once  possessed  of  a  numer- 
ous population.  Some  of  the  mounds,  such,  for  example,  as  those 
between  the  two  Miamis,  those  near  the  Cahokia,  and  those  far 
down  the  Mississippi  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Francisville,  Louisi- 
ana, must  have  been  works  of  great  labor.  Whatever  may  have 

*  In  "  Peruvian  Antiquities,"  by  JBivero  &  Tschudi,  is  this  of  a  Peruvian 
mummy  :  "The  hair  is  always  perfectly  preserved,  that  of  the  women  artificially 
braided,  but  the  black  pigment  or  coloring  matter  had  lost  more  or  less  of  its 
primitive  color,  and  had  become  reddish." 

f  "Flint's  Recollections."  %  St.  Charles,,  Mo. 

17 


258  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

been  their  former  objects  and  uses,  they  all  exhibited  indication  of 
art.  All  that  I  have  seen  were  in  regular  forms,  generally  cones 
or  parallelograms.  If  it  be  remarked  that  the  rude  monuments  of 
this  kind,  those  of  the  Mexican  Indians  even,  are  structures  of 
stone,  and  that  these  are  all  of  earth,  I  can  only  say  that  these  me- 
morials of  former  toil  and  existence  are,  as  far  as  my  observation 
has  extended,  all  in  regions  destitute  of  stones. 

You  have  been  informed  that  I  cultivated  a  small  farm  on  that 
beautiful  prairie  below  St.  Charles,  called  '  The  Mamelle  '  or 
Point  Prairie.  In  my  enclosure,  and  directly  back  of  my  house, 
were  two  conical  mounds  of  considerable  elevation.  A  hundred 
paces  in  front  of  them  was  a  high  bench,  marking  the  shore  of  the 
'  Marais  Croche,'  an  extensive  marsh,  and  evidently  the  former 
bed  of  the  Missouri.  In  digging  a  ditch  on  the  margin  of  this 
bench,  at  the  depth  of  four  feet,  we  discovered  great  quantities  of 
broken  pottery  belonging  to  vessels  of  all  sizes  and  characters. 
Some  must  have  been  of  a  size  to  contain  four  gallons.  I  have 
walked  on  these  mounds.  I  have  surveyed  their  form,  have  as- 
certained that  they  are  full  of  human  bones. 

We  have  prairies  which  have  struck  me  as  among  the  sublimest 
prospects  of  nature.  In  the  most  pleasing  position  of  these  prai- 
ries we  have  our  Indian  mounds  which  proudly  rise  above  the 
plain.  At  first  the  eye  mistakes  them  for  hills,  but  when  it  catches 
the  regularity  of  these  breastworks  and  ditches  it  discovers  at  once 
that  they  are  the  labors  of  art  and  of  men.  When  the  evidences 
of  the  senses  convince  us  that  human  bones  moulder  in  these 
masses,  when  you  dig  about  them  and  bring  to  light  their  domes- 
tic utensils  and  are  compelled  to  believe  that  the  busy  tide  of  life 
once  flowed  here,  when  you  see  at  once  that  these  races  were  of  a 
very  different  character  from  the  present  generation,  you  begin  to 
inquire  if  any  tradition,  if  any,  the  faintest,  records  can  throw  any 
light  upon  these  habitations  of  men  of  another  age.  Is  there  no 
scope  beside  these  mounds  for  imagination,  and  for  contemplation 
of  the  past  ?  The  men,  their  joys,  their  sorrows,  their  bones,  are 
all  buried  together ;  but  the  grand  features  of  nature  remain. 
There  is  the  beautiful  prairie  over  which  they  '  strutted  through 
life's  poor  play.'  The  forests,  the  hills,  the  mounds  lift  their 
heads  in  unalterable  repose,  and  furnish  the  same  sources  of  con- 
templation to  us  that  they  did  to  those  generations  that  have 
passed  away. 

It  is  true  we  have  little  reason  to  suppose  that  they  were  the 
guilty  dens  of  petty  tyrants,  who  let  loose  their  half-savage  vassals 
to  burn,  plunder,  enslave,  and  despoil  an  adjoining  den.  There  are 


CHAP.  XXIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  259 

no  remains  of  the  vast  and  useless  monasteries,  where  ignorant 
and  lazy  monks  dreamed  over  their  lusts  or  meditated  their  vile 
plans  of  acquisition  and  imposture.  Here  must  have  been  a  race 
of  men  on  these  charming  plains  that  had  every  call  from  the 
scenes  that  surrounded  them  to  contented  existence  and  tranquil 
meditation.  Unfortunately,  as  men  view  things,  they  must  have 
been  innocent  and  peaceful — they  probably  were,  for  had  they 
been  reared  amidst  wars  and  quarrels,  like  the  present  Indians, 
they  would  doubtless  have  maintained  their  ground,  and  their 
posterity  would  have  remained  to  this  day.  Beside  them  moulder 
the  huge  bones  of  their  cotemporary  beasts,  which  must  have  been 
of  thrice  the  size  of  the  elephant.  I  cannot  judge  of  the  recollec- 
tions excited  by  castles  and  towers  that  I  have  not  seen,  but  I 
have  seen  all  of  grandeur  which  our  cities  can  display.  I  have 
seen,  too,  these  lonely  tombs  of  the  desert — seen  them  rise  from 
these  boundless  and  unpeopled  plains.  My  imagination  had  been 
filled,  and  my  heart  has  been  full.  The  nothingness  of  the  brief 
dream  of  human  life  has  forced  itself  upon  my  mind.  The  un- 
known race  to  which  these  bones  belonged  had,  I  doubt  not,  as 
many  projects  of  ambition  and  hoped  as  sanguinely  to  have  their 
names  survive  as  the  great  of  the  present  day."* 

Mr.  Dunbar  and  Dr.  Hunter  and  party  were  employed  by  the 
government  of  the  United  States  to  make  a  survey  of  and  explore 
the  country  traversed  by  the  Washita  River.  They  left  St.  Cath- 
arine's Landing,  on  the  Mississippi,  Tuesday,  16th  of  October,  1804, 
and  on  their  return  Mr.  Dunbar  reached  his  home,  about  twelve 
miles  from  Natchez,  on  the  20th  of  December,  1804,  and  Dr.  Hunter 
and  party,  St.  Catharine's  Landing  the  morning  of  January  31, 1805. 

The  following  is  from  a  sketch  of  their  report,  and  relates  to  the 
mounds  at  Trinity,  where  the  Catahoula,  Washita,  and  Bayou  Ten- 
sas  unite  their  waters  and  form  Black  River,  which,  in  many  places, 
does  not  exceed  eighty  yards  in  width : 

"  On  arriving  at  the  mouth  of  the  Catahoula  they  landed  to 
obtain  information  from  a  Frenchman  settled  there.  His  house 
stands  on  an  Indian  mound,  with  several  others  in  view.  There 
is  also  a  species  of  rampart  surrounding  this  place,  and  one  very 
elevated  mound. 

There  is  an  embankment  running  from  the  Catahoula  to  Black 
River  (including  about  two  hundred  acres  of  rich  land),  at  present 
about  ten  feet  high  and  ten  feet  broad.  This  surrounds  four  large 
mounds  of  earth,  at  the  distance  of  a  bow-shot  from  each  other,  each 
of  which  may  be  twenty  feet  high,  one  hundred  feet  broad,  and 

*  Flint's  "  Recollections,"  etc. 


260  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

three  hundred  feet  long  at  the  top,  besides  a  stupendous  turret  on 
the  back  part  of  the  whole,  or  farthest  from  the  water,  whose  base 
covers  about  an  acre  of  ground,  rising  by  two  steps  or  stories, 
tapering  in  the  ascent,  the  whole  surmounted  with  a  great  cone, 
with  its  top  cut  off.  This  tower  of  earth,  on  admeasurement,  was 
found  to  be  eighty  feet  perpendicular." 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

Bartram's  Account  of  the  Cherokees,  Muscogulges,  Creeks,  and  Choctaws. 

WILLIAM  BARTRAM,  the  American  botanist,  spent  four  or  five 
years,  from  1773,  in  travelling  through  what  is  now  Florida,  Geor- 
gia, Alabama,  Mississippi,  leaving  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  in 
April,  1773,  and  reaching  Point  Coupee,  on  the  Mississippi  River, 
in  1777,  even  visiting  the  part  of  the  Cherokee  country  in  Tennes- 
see, and  on  his  return  from  his  travels  reached  his  father's  house, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill,  within  four  miles  of  Philadelphia, 
January,  1778.  Thus  Bartram  had  ample  time  and  opportunities 
to  study  the  Indians  of  the  territory  between  the  Savannah  and 
the  Mississippi  rivers  south  of  Tennessee,  and  he  thus  describes 
them : 

u  The  males  of  the  Cherokees,  Muscogulges,*  Seminoles,  Chicka- 
saws,  Choctaws,  and  confederate  tribes  of  the  Creeks,  are  tall,  erect, 
and  moderately  robust ;  their  limbs  well  shaped,  so  as  generally 
to  form  a  perfect  human  figure ;  their  features  regular,  and  coun- 
tenance open,  dignified,  and  placid,  yet  the  forehead  and  brow  so 
formed  as  to  strike  you  instantly  with  heriosm  and  bravery ;  the 
eye,  though  rather  small,  yet  active  and  full  of  fire ;  the  iris  always 
black,  and  the  nose  commonly  inclined  to  the  aquiline. 

Their  countenance  and  actions  exhibit  an  air  of  magnanimity, 
superiority,  and  independence. 

Their  complexion  of  a  reddish-brown  or  copper-color ;  their  hair 
long,  lank,  coarse,  and  black  as  a  raven,  and  reflecting  the  like 
lustre  at  different  exposures  to  the  light. 

The  women  of  the  Cherokees  are  tall,  slender,  erect,  and  of  a 
delicate  frame,  their  features  formed  with  perfect  symmetry,  their 
countenance  cheerful  and  friendly,  and  they  move  with  becoming 
grace  and  dignity. 

*  Muscogulge  is  the  Indian  name  of  Creeks,  the  word  Creeks  being  an  Eng- 
lish name. 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  '  OF   AMERICA.  261 

The  Muscogulge  women,  though  remarkably  short  of  stature, 
are  well  formed,  their  visage  round,  features  regular  and  beautiful ; 
the  brow  high  and  arched ;  the  eye  large,  black,  languishing,  ex- 
pressive of  modesty,  diffidence,  and  bashfulness ;  they  are  loving 
and  affectionate.  They  are,  I  believe,  the  smallest  race  of  women 
yet  known,  seldom  above  five  feet  high,  and  I  believe  the  greater 
number  never  arrive  at  that  stature ;  their  hands  and  feet  not 
larger  than  those  of  Europeans  of  nine  or  ten  years  of  age ;  yet 
the  men  are  of  gigantic  stature,  a  full  size  larger  than  Europeans, 
many  of  them  above  six  feet  and  few  under  that  or  five  feet  eight 
or  ten  inches;  their  complexion  much  darker  than  that  of  any 
of  the  tribes  to  the  north  of  them  that  I  have  seen.  This  descrip- 
tion will,  I  believe,  comprehend  the  Muscogulges,  their  confeder- 
ates, the  Choctaws,  and,  I  believe,  the  Chickasaws  (though  I  have 
never  seen  their  women),  excepting,  however,  some  bands  of  the 
Seminoles,  Uches,  and  Savannucas,  who  are  rather  taller  and  slen- 
derer, and  their  complexion  brighter. 

The  Cherokees  are  yet  taller  and  more  robust  than  the  Musco- 
gulges, and  by  far  the  largest  race  of  men  I  have  seen,*  their  com- 
plexion brighter,  and  somewhat  of  an  olive  cast,  especially  the 
adults,  and  many  of  their  women  are  nearly  as  fair  and  blooming 
as  European  women. 

The  Cherokees,  in  their  disposition  and  manner  are  grave  and 
steady,  dignified  and  circumspect  in  their  deportment;  rather 
slow  and  reserved  in  conversation,  yet  frank,  cheerful,  and  hu- 
mane ;  tenacious  of  the  liberties  and  natural  rights  of  man  ;  secret, 
deliberate,  and  determined  in  their  councils ;  honest,  just,  and 
liberal,  and  ready  always  to  sacrifice  every  pleasure  and  gratifica- 
tion, even  their  blood,  and  life  itself,  to  defend  their  territory  and 
maintain  their  rights.  They  do  homage  to  the  Muscogulges  with 
reluctance,  and  are  impatient  under  their  galling  yoke. 

The  national  character  of  the  Muscogulges,  when  considered  in 
a  political  view,  exhibits  a  portraiture  of  a  great  or  illustrious  hero. 
A  proud,  haughty,  and  arrogant  race  of  men,  they  are  brave  and 
valiant  in  war,  ambitious  of  conquest,  restless  and  perpetually  ex- 
ercising their  arms,  yet  magnanimous  and  merciful  to  a  van- 
quished enemy,  when  he  submits  and  seeks  their  friendship  and 
protection  ;  always  uniting  the  vanquished  tribes  in  confederacy 
with  them,  when  they  immediately  enjoy,  unexceptionally,  every 

*  "There  are,  however,  some  exceptions  to  this  general  observation,  as  I 
have  myself  witnessed.  Their  present  grand  chief  (the  Little  Carpenter),  Atta- 
kul-kulla,  is  a  man  of  remarkably  small  stature,  slender,  and  of  a  delicate  frame, 
the  only  instance  I  saw  in  the  nation  ;  but  he  is  a  man  of  superior  abilities." 


262  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

right  of  free  citizens,  and  are  from  that  moment  united  in  one 
common  bond  of  brotherhood.*  They  were  never  known  to  ex- 
terminate a  tribe,  except  the  Yamasees,  who  would  never  submit 
on  any  terms,  but  fought  it  out  to  the  last,  only  about  forty  or  fifty 
of  them  escaping  at  the  last  decisive  battle,  who  threw  themselves 
under  the  protection  of  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine. 

If  we  consider  them  with  respect  to  their  private  character,  or  in 
a  moral  view,  they  must.  I  think,  claim  our  approbation,  if  we  di- 
vest ourselves  of  prejudice  and  think  freely.  As  moral  men  they 
certainly  stand  in  no  need  of  European  civilization. 

They  are  just,  honest,  liberal  and  hospitable  ;  considerate,  loving 
and  affectionate  to  their  wives  and  relations  ;  fond  of  their  chil- 
dren, industrious,  frugal,  temperate  and  persevering,  charitable  and 
forbearing.  I  have  been  weeks  and  months  amongst  them,  and  in 
their  towns,  and  never  observed  the  least  sign  of  contention  or 
wrangling ;  never  saw  an  instance  of  an  Indian  beating  his  wife, 
or  even  reproving  her  in  anger.  In  this  case  they  stand  as  exam- 
ples of  reproof  to  the  most  civilized  nations,  as  not  being  defective 
in  justice,  gratitude  and  good  understanding,  for  indeed  their 
wives  merit  their  esteem  and  the  most  gentle  treatment,  they  being 
industrious,  frugal,  careful,  loving  and  affectionate. 

The  Muscogulges  are  more  volatile,  sprightly  and  talkative  than 
their  northern  neighbors,  the  Cherokees,  and  though  far  more  dis- 
tant from  the  white  settlement  than  any  nation  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, appear  evidently  to  have  made  greater  advancement  towards 
the  refinements  of  true  civilization. 

It  is  astonishing,  though  a  fact,  as  well  as  a  sharp  reproof  to  the 
white  people,  if  they  will  allow  themselves  liberty  to  reflect  and 
form  a  just  estimate,  and  I  must  own  elevates  these  people  to  the 
first  rank  among  mankind,  that  they  have  been  able  to  resist  the 
continual  efforts  of  the  complicated  host  of  vices  that  have  for 
ages  overrun  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  and  contaminated 
their  morals ;  and  yet  more  so  since  such  vast  armies  of  these  evil 
spirits  have  invaded  this  continent  and  closely  invested  them  on 
all  sides. 

The  Muscogulges  with  their  confederates,  the  Choctaws,  Chick  - 
asaws,  and  perhaps  the  Cherokees,  eminently  deserve  the  encomi- 
ums of  all  nations  for  their  wisdom  and  virtue  in  resisting,  and 
even  in  repelling  the  greatest,  and  even  the  common  enemy  of 
mankind,  at  least  of  most  of  the  European  nations  ;  I  mean  spirit- 

*  The  Peruvians  did  almost  the  same,  but  they  assigned  the  vanquished  a 
different  territory  from  that  they  had  occupied  previously  to  being  vanquished, 
thus  destroying  local  tics,  to  attach  them  to  the  ge  neral  welfare. 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  OF    AMERICA.  263 

uous  liquors.  The  first  and  most  cogent  article  in  all  their  treaties 
with  the  white  people  is  '  that  there  shall  not  be  any  kind  of 
spirituous  liquors  sold  or  brought  into  their  towns.' 

The  king,  although  he  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  first  and  great- 
est man  in  the  town  or  tribe,  and  honored  with  every  due  and 
rational  mark  of  love  and  esteem,  and,  when  presiding  in  council, 
with  a  humility  and  homage  as  reverent  as  that  paid  to  the  most 
despotic  monarch  in  Europe  or  the  East,  and  when  absent  his  seat 
is  not  filled  by  any  other  person,  yet  he  is  not  dreaded  ;  and  when 
not  of  the  council,  he  associates  with  the  people  as  a  common  man, 
converses  with  them,  and  they  with  him,  in  perfect  ease  and  famil- 
iarity. 

The  Mico,  or  king,  though  elective,  yet  his  advancement  to  that 
supreme  dignity  must  be  understood  in  a  very  different  light  from 
the  elective  monarchs  of  the  Old  World,  where  the  progress  to 
magistracy  is  generally  effected  by  schism  and  the  influence  of 
friends  gained  by  craft,  bribery,  and  often  .  by  more  violent 
methods,  and  after  the  throne  is  obtained  by  measures  little  better 
than  usurpation,  he  must  be  protected  and  supported  there  by  the 
same  base  means  that  carried  him  thither. 

But  here  behold  the  majesty  of  the  Muscogulge  Mico  !  He  does 
not  either  publicly  or  privately  beg  of  the  people  to  place  him  in 
a  situation  to  command  or  rule  over  them,  and  his  appearance  is 
altogether  mysterious ;  as  a  beneficent  deity  he  rises  king  over 
them  as  the  sun  rises  to  bless  the  earth  ! 

No  one  will  tell  you 'how  or  when  he  became  king,  but  he  is 
universally  acknowledged  to  be  the  greatest  person  among  them, 
and  he  is  loved,  esteemed  and  reverenced,  although  he  associates, 
eats,  drinks  and  dances  with  them  in  common  as  other  men  ;  his 
dress  is  the  same,  and  a  stranger  could  not  distinguish  the  king's 
habitation  from  that  of  any  other  citizen  by  any  sort  of  splendor 
or  magnificence,  yet  he  perceives  they  act  as  though  their  Mico 
beheld  them,  himself  invisible.  In  a  word,  their  Mico  seems  to 
them  the  representative  of  Providence,  or  the  Great  Spirit,  whom 
the)7  acknowledge  to  preside  over  and  influence  their  councils  and 
public  proceedings.  He  personally  presides  daily  in  their  coun- 
cils, either  at  the  rotunda  or  the  public  square,  and  even  here  his 
voice  is  regarded  no  more  than  that  of  any  other  chief  or  senator, 
no  farther  than  his  advice  as  being  that  of  the  best  and  wisest  man 
of  the  tribe,  and  not  by  virtue  of  regal  prerogative. 

The  most  active  part  of  the  Mico  is  in  the  civil  government  of 
the  town  or  tribe  ;  here  he  has  the  power  and  prerogative  of  call- 
ing a  council  to  deliberate  on  peace  or  war,  or  all  public  concerns, 


264  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

as  inquiring  into  and  deciding  upon  complaints  and  differences, 
but  he  has  not  the  least  shadow  of  exclusive  executive  power.  He 
is  complimented  with  the  first  visits  of  strangers,  giving  audience 
to  ambassadors  with  presents,  and  he  has  also  the  disposal  of  the 
public  granary. 

The  next  man  in  order  of  dignity  and  power  is  the  great  war 
chief;  he  represents  and  exercises  the  dignity  of  the  Mico,  in  his 
absence ;  in  the  council  his  voice  is  of  the  greatest  weight  in  mili- 
tary affairs  ;  his  power  and  authority  are  entirely  independent  of 
the  Mico,  though  when  a  Mico  goes  on  an  expedition  he  heads  the 
army,  and  is  there  the  war  chief.  There  are  many  of  these  war 
chiefs  in  a  town  or  tribe  who  are  captains  or  leaders  of  military 
parties;  they  are  elderly  men  who  in  their  youthful  days  have 
distinguished  themselves  in  war  by  their  valor,  subtlety  and  in- 
trepidity, and  these  veteran  chiefs,  in  a  great  degree,  constitute 
their  lively,  dignified  and  venerable  senate. 

There  is  in  every  town  or  tribe  a  high  priest,  besides  several  ju- 
niors or  graduates,  but  the  ancient  high  priest  or  seer  presides  in 
spiritual  affairs,  and  is  a  person  of  consequence ;  he  maintains  and 
exercises  great  influence  in  the  State,  particularly  in  military  af- 
fairs ;  the  senate  never  determines  an  expedition  against  their  ene- 
mies without  his  counsel  and  assistance.  These  people  believe 
that  their  seer  has  communion  with  powerful  invisible  spirits, 
who,  they  believe,  have  a  share  in  the  rule  and  government  of  hu- 
man affairs,  as  well  as  the  elements ;  that  he  can  predict  the  re- 
sult of  an  expedition  ;  and  his  influence  is  so  great  that  they  have 
been  known  frequently  to  stop  and  turn  back  an  army  when  within 
a  day's  journey  of  the  enemy,  after  a  march  of  several  hundred 
miles.*  They  foretell  rain  or  drouth,  and  pretend  to  bring  rain 
at  pleasure,  cure  diseases  and  exercise  witchcraft,  invoke  or  expel 
spirits,  and  even  assume  power  of  directing  thunder  and  light- 
ning. 

These  Indians  are  by  no  means  idolaters,  unless  their  puffing 
the  tobacco-smoke  towards  the  sun  and  rejoicing  at  the  appear- 
ance of  the  new  moon  may  be  termed  so.  So  far  from  idolatry 
are  they  that  they  have  no  images  among  them,f  nor  any  religious 
rite  or  ceremony  that  I  could  perceive,  but  adore  the  Great  Spirit 
with  the  most  profound  and  respectful  homage.  They  believe  in 
a  future  state  where  the  spirit  exists. 

*  A  case  of  this  kind  happened  in  an  expedition  in  which  a  detachment  of 
Laudonnier's  men  accompanied  a  Floridian  army  in  1564. 

f  Then  the  images  found  in  the  great  mound  near  Cartersville,  in  the  State  of 
Georgia,  must  have  been  idols  of  some  other  race. 


CHAP.  XXIV.]  •  OP    AMERICA.  265 

The  men  shave  their  heads,  leaving  only  a  narrow  crest  or  comb 
(like  a  chicken's)  about  two  inches  broad,  and  about  the  same 
height.  Their  ears  are  lacerated,  separating  the  border  or  carti- 
laginous limb,  which  is  bound  round  very  close  and  tight  until 
healed  (in  which  they  wear  ornaments). 

They  have  large  silver  crescents,  or  gorgets,  which  being  sus- 
pended from  the  neck  lie  upon  the  breast,  and  the  arms  are  orna- 
mented with  silver  bands,  or  bracelets,  and  silver  and  gold  chains, 
and  a  collar  invests  the  neck.  The  head,  neck  and  breast  are 
painted  with  vermilion,  and  some  of  the  warriors  have  the  skin 
of  the  breast  and  muscular  parts  of  the  body  very  curiously  in- 
scribed or  adorned  with  hieroglyphics,  scrolls,  flowers,  figures  of 
animals,  crescents,  and  the  sun  in  the  centre  of  the  breast.  This 
is  performed  by  pricking  the  skin  and  rubbing  in  a  bluish  tint. 

The  junior  priests  or  students  constantly  wear  the  mantle  or 
robe,  which  is  white,  and  they  have  a  great  owl  skin  cased  and 
stuffed  very  ingeniously,  so  well  executed  as  almost  to  represent 
the  living  bird,  having  large  sparkling  glass  beads  or  buttons 
fixed  in  the  head  for  eyes.  This  ensign  of  wisdom  and  divina- 
tion they  wear  sometimes  as  a  crest  on  the  top  of  the  head ;  at 
other  times  the  image  sits  on  the  arm,  or  is  borne  in  the  hand. 
These  bachelors  are  also  distinguished  from  the  other  people  by 
their  taciturnity,  grave  and  solemn  countenances,  dignified  step, 
and  singing  to  themselves  songs  and  hymns  in  a  low,  sweet  voice, 
as  they  stroll  about  the  town.* 

They  have  feasts  or  festivals  for  almost  every  month  in  the  year. 
The  busk,  or  feast  of  first  fruits,  is  their  principal  festival ;  this 
seems  to  end  the  last  and  begin  the  new  year.  It  commences  in 
August,  when  their  new  crops  of  corn  are  arrived  at  perfect  ma- 
turity, and  every  town  celebrates  the  busk  separately,  when  their 
own  harvest  is  ready.  If  they  have  any  religious  rite  or  cere- 
mony, this  festival  is  its  most  solemn  celebration.  When  a  town 
celebrates  the  busk,  having  previously  provided  themselves  with 
new  clothes,  new  pots,  new  pans,  and  other  household  utensils 
and  furniture,  they  collect  all  their  worn-out  clothes  and  other 
despicable  things,  sweep  and  cleanse  their  houses,  squares,  and 
the  whole  town  of  their  filth,  which,  with  all  the  remaining  grain 
and  other  old  provisions,  they  cast  together  in  one  common  heap, 
and  consume  it  with  fire.  After  having  taken  medicine,  and  fasted 
for  three  days,  all  the  fire  in  the  town  is  extinguished.  During 
this  fast  they  abstain  from  the  gratification  of  every  appetite  and 

*  It  is  remarkable,  the  adoption  of  this  emblem  of  wisdom  by  the  Trojans, 
Greeks,  and  Muscogulges. 


266  THE   INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

passion  whatever.  A  general  amnesty  is  proclaimed,  all  malefac- 
tors may  return  to  their  town,  and  they  are  absolved  from  their 
crimes,  which  are  now  forgotten,  and  they  restored  to  favor.  On 
the  fourth  morning  the  high-priest,  by  rubbing  dry  wood  together, 
produces  new  fire  in  the  public  square,  from  whence  every  habi- 
tation in  the  town  is  supplied  with  the  new  and  pure  flame.  Then 
the  women  go  forth  to  the  harvest-field  and  bring  from  thence 
new  corn  and  fruits,  which,  being  prepared  in  various  dishes,  and 
drink  withal,  is  brought  with  solemnity  to  the  square,  where  the 
people  are  assembled,  apparelled  in  their  new  clothes  and  decora- 
tions. The  men,  having  reeraled  themselves,  the  remainder  is 
carried  off  and  distributed  among  the  families  of  the  town.  The 
women  and  children  solace  themselves  in  their  separate  families, 
and  in  the  evening  repair  to  the  public  square,  where  they  dance, 
sing,  and  rejoice  during  the  whole  night,  observing  a  proper  and 
exemplary  decorum.  This  continues  three  days,  and  the  four  fol- 
lowing days  they  receive  visits,  and  rejoice  with  their  friends  from 
neighboring  towns  who  have  purified  and  prepared  themselves.* 

The  Moscogulges  allow  of  polygamy  in  the  utmost  latitude. 
Adultery  is  always  punished  with  cropping,  which  is  the  only 
corporeal  punishment  amongst  them  ;  murder,  by  death  or  out- 
lawry ;  fornication,  theft,  and  less  crimes,  by  infamy,  which  pro- 
duces such  repeated  marks  and  reflections  of  ridicule  and  con- 
tempt, that  it  generally  ends  in  a  voluntary  banishment,  f 

The  Moscogulges  bury  their  dead  in  the  earth.  They  dig  a 
four-square  deep  pit  under  the  cabin  or  couch  which  the  deceased 
lay  on,  in  his  house,  lining  the  grave  with  cypress  bark,  where  they 
place  the  corpse  in  a  sitting  posture,  as  if  it  were  alive ;  depositing 
with  him  his  gun,  tomahawk,  pipe,  and  such  other  matters  as  he 
had  the  greatest  value  for  in  his  lifetime.  His  eldest  wife,  or  the 
queen-dowager,  has  the  second  choice  of  his  possessions,  and  the 
remaining  effects  are  divided  among  his  other  wives  and  children. 

The  Choctaws  are  called  by  the  traders  flats  or  flat-heads. 
All  the  males  have  the  fore  and  hind  part  of  their  skulls  artificially 
flattened,  or  compressed,  by  which  means  they  have  high  and 
lofty  foreheads,  sloping  backwards.  These  men  are  not  so  neat  in 

*  This  festival,  in  many  respects,  resembles  that  of  the  Natchez,  and  that 
which  the  Mexicans  celebrated  every  fifty-two  years,  on  the  last  night  of  their 
century.  There  are  so  many  resemblances  between  the  Indians  of  Mexico  and 
those  north  of  .that  state  that  they  appear  to  indicate  a  common  origin  for  the 
American  Indians. 

f  And  in  this  respect  of  sensibility  to  shame  and  contempt  incurred  by  crime 
they  show  themselves  superior  to  some  more  civilized  nations. 


CHAP.  XXV.]  OF    AMERICA.  267 

the  trim  of  their  heads  as  the  Muscogulges  are,  and  they  are  re- 
markably slovenly  and  negligent  in  every  part  of  their  dress,  but 
otherwise  they  are  said  to  be  ingenious,  sensible  and  virtuous  men, 
bold  and  intrepid,  yet  quiet  and  peaceable,  and  are  acknowledged 
by  the  Creeks  to  be  brave. 

They  are  supposed  to  be  most  ingenious  and  industrious  hus- 
bandmen, having  large  plantations  where  they  employ  much  of 
their  time  in  agricultural  improvements,  by  which  means  their 
territory  is  more  generally  cultivated  and  better  inhabited  than  any 
other  Indian  republic  we  know  of.  The  number  of  their  inhabi- 
tants is  said  greatly  to  exceed  the  whole  Muscogulge  confederacy, 
although  their  territories  are  not  a  fourth  part  as  extensive. 

The  Muscogulge  language  is  spoken  throughout  the  confeder- 
acy (although  consisting  of  many  nations  having  a  speech  pecu- 
liar to  themselves),  as  also  by  their  friends  and  allies,  the  Natchez. 
The  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw,  the  Muscogulges  say,  are  dialects  of 
theirs. 

This  language  is  very  agreeable  to  the  ear — courteous,  gentle, 
and  musical.  The  letter  R  is  not  sounded  in  one  word  of  their 
language.  The  men's  speech  is  strong  and  sonorous,  but  not 
harsh,  and  in  no  instance  guttural,  and  I  believe  the  letter  R  is 
not  used  to  express  any  word  in  any  language  of  the  confeder- 
acy. The  Cherokee  tongue,  on  the  contrary,  is  very  loud,  some- 
what rough,  and  very  sonorous,  sounding  the  letter  R  very  fre- 
quently, yet  very  agreeable  and  pleasant  to  the  ear." 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

Indian  Burials  and  Idols — Mounds,  Terraces,  and  Avenues. 

PRESIDENT  JEFFERSON,  in  his  notes  on  the  State  of  Virginia,  in 
speaking  of  "  barrows,"  says  :  "  Many  are  to  be  found  all  over 
this  country.  They  are  of  different  sizes,  some  of  them  con- 
structed of  earth  and  some  of  loose  stones.  Some  have  thought 
they  covered  the  bones  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  battles  fought 
on  the  spot  of  interment.  Some  ascribed  them  to  the  custom, 
said  to  prevail  among  the  Indians,  of  collecting,  at  certain  periods, 
the  bones  of  all  their  dead,  wheresoever  deposited  at  the  time  of  their 
death.  Others  again  supposed  them  the  general  sepulchres  of 
towns  conjectured  to  have  been  in  or  near  these  grounds ;  and  this 
opinion  was  supported  by  the  quality  of  the  lands  in  which  they 


268  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXV. 

are  found  (those  constructed  of  earth  being  generally  of  the  softest 
and  most  fertile  meadow-grounds  on  river-sides),  and  by  a  tradi- 
tion, said  to  be  handed  down  from  the  aboriginal  inhabitants, 
that  when  they  settled  a  town  the  first  person  who  died  was  placed 
erect  and  earth  put  about  him  so  as  to  cover  and  support  him  ; 
that  when  another  died  a  narrow  passage  was  dug  to  the  first,  the 
second  reclined  against  him  and  the  cover  of  earth  replaced,  and 
so  on.  There  being  one  of  these  in  my  neighborhood,  I  wished  to 
satisfy  myself  whether  any  and  which  of  these  opinions  were 
just.  For  this  purpose  I  determined  to  open  and  examine  it 
thoroughly.  It  was  situated  on  the  low  grounds  of  the  Rivanna, 
about  two  miles  above  its  principal  fork,  and  opposite  to  some 
hills  on  which  had  been  an  Indian  town.  It  was  of  a  spheroidal 
form,  of  about  forty  feet  diameter  at  the  base,  and  had  been  of 
about  twelve  feet  altitude,  though  now  reduced  by  the  plow  to 
seven  and  a  half,  having  been  under  cultivation  about  a  dozen 
years.*  Before  this  it  was  covered  by  trees  of  a  foot  in  diameter, 
and  round  the  base  was  an  excavation  of  five  feet  depth  and  width, 
from  whence  the  earth  had  been  taken  of  which  the  hillock  was 
formed.  I  first  dug  superficially  in  several  parts  of  it,  and  came  to 
collections  of  human  bones  at  different  depths  from  six  inches  to 
three  feet  below  the  surface. f  These  were  lying  in  the  utmost 
confusion,  some  vertical,  some  oblique,  some  horizontal,  and  di- 
rected to  every  point  of  the  compass,  entangled  and  held  together 
in  clusters  by  the  earth.  Bones  of  the  most  distant  parts  were 
found  together,  as,  for  instance,  the  small  bones  of  the  feet  in  the 
hollow  of  a  skull.  Many  skulls  would  sometimes  be  in  contact, 
lie  on  the  face,  on  the  side,  on  the  back,  top  or  bottom,  so  as,  on 
the  whole,  to  give  the  idea  of  bones  emptied  promiscuously  from 
a  bag  or  basket,  and  covered  over  with  earth  without  any  attention 
to  their  order.  The  skulls  were  so  tender  that  they  generally  fell 
to  pieces  on  being  touched.  The  other  bones  were  stronger.  There 
were  a  rib  and  a  fragment  of  the  under-jaw  of  a  person  about  half- 
grown,  a  rib  of  an  infant,  and  a  part  of  the  jaw  of  a  child  which 
had  not  cut  its  teeth,  this  last  furnishing  the  most  decisive  proof 
of  the  burial  of  children  here.  I  proceeded  then  to  make  a  per- 
pendicular cut  through  the  body  of  the  barrow,  that  I  might  ex- 

*  This  shows  how  rapidly  these  earthworks  are  reduced  by  cultivation,  and 
consequently  how  soon  they  disappear  under  such  circumstances,  while  herbage 
and  forests  not  only  protect  and  preserve  them,  but  also  actually  increase  their 
size. 

t  That  would  make  these  remains  about  five  feet  to  seven  and  a  half  feet  below 
the  original  summit  of  the  mound. 


CHAP.  XXV.]  '  OP   AMERICA.  269 

amine  its  internal  structure.  This  passed  about  three  feet  from 
its  centre,  was  opened  to  the  former  surface  of  the  earth,  and  was 
wide  enough  for  a  man  to  walk  through  and  examine  its  sides. 
At  the  bottom,  that  is,  on  the  level  of  the  circumjacent  plain,  I 
found  bones,  and  above  these  a  few  stones  brought  from  a  cliff  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  off,  and  from  the  river  one-eighth  of  a  mile 
off;  then  a  large  interval  of  earth,  then  a  stratum  of  bones, 
and  so  on.*  At  one  end  of  the  section  were  four  strata  of 
bones  plainly  distinguishable,  at  the  other  three,  the  strata  in 
one  part  not  ranging  with  those  in  another.  The  bones  nearest 
the  surface  were  least  decayed.  No  holes  were  discovered  in  any 
of  them  as  if  made  by  bullets,  arrows  or  other  weapon.  I  conjec- 
tured that  in  this  barrow  might  have  been  one  thousand  skeletons. 
Appearances  certainly  indicate  that  it  has  derived  both  origin  and 
growth  from  the  accustomary  collection  of  bones  and  deposition 
of  them  together.f 

But  on  whatever  occasion  they  may  have  been  made,  they  are 
of  considerable  notoriety  among  the  Indians  ;  for  a  party  passing, 
about  thirty  years  ago,  through  the  part  of  the  country  where  this 
barrow  is,  went  through  the  woods  directly  to  it,  without  any  in- 
struction or  inquiry,  and  having  staid  about  it  some  time,  with 
expressions  which  were  construed  to  be  those  of  sorrow,  they  re- 
turned to  the  high  road,  which  they  had  left  about  six  miles,  to 
pay  this  visit,  and  pursued  their  journey.  There  is  another  bar- 
row, much  resembling  this,  in  the  low  grounds  of  the  south  branch 
of  the  Shenandoah  where  it  is  crossed  by  the  road  leading  from 
Rockfish  gap  to  Staunton.  Both  of  these  having  within  these 
dozen  years  been  cleared  of  their  trees,  and  put  under  cultivation, 
are  much  reduced  in  their  height,  and  spread  in  width  by  the 
plough,  and  will  probably  disappear  in  time.  There  is  another  on 
a  hill  in  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains,  a  few  miles  north  of  Wood's 
gap,  which  is  made  up  of  small  stones  thrown  together.  This  has 
been  opened  and  found  to  contain  human  bones,  as  the  others  do. 
There  are  also  many  others  in  different  parts  of  the  country.1' 

Bartram  gives  the  following  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
Choctaws  dispose  of  their  dead :  "As  soon  as  a  person  is  dead, 

*  It  is  probable  that  the  remains  covered  with  stones  were  those  of  the  per- 
son to  whom  the  "  large"  heap  of  earth  above  them  was  erected,  and  that  the 
mound  was  converted  by  the  Indians  into  a  burial-place  without  any  knowledge 
of  its  contents. 

t  This  verifies  the  conjecture  that  the  bones  deposited  in  temples  and  on  scaf- 
folds, as  in  Florida,  among  the  Choctaws,  etc.,  are  at  intervals  of  time,  accord- 
ingly as  they  accumulate,  thus  disposed  of. 


270  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXV. 

they  erect  a  scaffold  eighteen  or  twenty  feet  high,  in  a  grove  ad- 
jacent to  the  town,  where  they  lay  the  corpse  tightly  covered  with 
a  mantle ;  here  it  is  suffered  to  remain,  visited  and  protected  by 
the  friends  and  relations,  until  the  flesh  becomes  putrid,  so  as 
easily  to  part  from  the  bones ;  then  undertakers,  who  make  it  their 
business,  carefully  strip  the  flesh  from  the  bones,  wash  and  cleanse 
them,  and,  when  dry,  purify  by  the  air ;  having  provided  a  curi- 
ously wrought  chest  or  coffin,  fabricated  of  bones  and  splints,  they 
place  all  the  bones  therein;  it  is  then  deposited  in  the  bone-house, 
a  building  erected  for  that  purpose  in  every  town.  And  when  this 
house  is  full,  a  general  solemn  funeral  takes  place  ;  the  nearest  kin- 
dred or  friends  of  the  deceased  on  a  day  appointed  repair  to  the 
bone-house,  take  up  their  respective  coffins,  and  following  one  an- 
other in  order  of  seniority,  the  nearest  relations  and  connections 
attending  their  respective  corpse,  and  the  multitude  following  after 
them,  all  as  one  family,  with  united  voice  of  alternate  allelujah  and 
lamentation,  slowly  proceed  to  the  place  of  general  interments, 
where  they  place  the  coffins  in  order,  forming  a  pyramid,  and  lastly 
cover  all  over  with  earth,  which  raises  a  conical  hill  or  mount. 
Then  they  return  in  order  of  solemn  procession,  concluding  the 
day  with  a  festival  which  is  called  the  feast  of  the  dead." 

In  one  of  the  earliest  accounts  of  Virginia  is  the  following  :  "  In 
the  same  township  they  had  places  of  devotion  as  well  as  of  feast- 
ing. The  idol  they  worshipped,  called  Kiwasa,  was  carved  out  of 
wood,  about  four  feet  high,  and  seemed  to  be  copied  from  the 
Floridian  idols.  The  head  was  of  a  flesh-color,  the  breast  white, 
and  all  the  rest  of  the  body  black.  It  was  placed  at  Secota,  in  the 
sepulchre  of  the  deceased  princes,  but  we  do  not  find  that  the  na- 
tives were  originally  impressed  with  any  great  degree  of  devotion 
towards  it,  for  it  remained  in  the  tomb  as  an  object  of  terror  rather 
than  of  worship.  In  other  repositories,  two,  and  sometimes  four 
or  more  of  these  idols  were  placed  for  the  same  purpose,  but  all  of 
them  in  the  darkest  part  of  the  building,  to  give  them  the  more 
tremendous  appearance.*  As  to  the  temple  or  sepulchre,  it  was  no 
other  than  a  scaffolding  raised  upon  poles  seme  ten  feet  from  the 

*  One  of  the  Indian  chiefs  of  Virginia,  carrying  an  idol  with  his  forces,  at- 
tacked Smith's  men  ;  the  Indians  were  defeated  and  the  idol  captured.  Smith 
made  them  pay  dearly  for  its  restoration. 

In  the  life  of  the  Duke  of  Berwick,  it  is  related  that  a  Portuguese  army  hav- 
ing entered  a  stream,  in  approaching  to  attack  a  fort,  confusion  was  observed  in 
their  column,  and  that  it  was  caused  by  a  cannon-ball  having  carried  away  the 
head  of  the  image  of  a  saint  which  the  Portuguese  carried  at  the  head  of  the  col- 
umn. The  result  was  that  the  Portuguese  retreated  in  disorder. 


CHAP.  XXV.]  OF    AMERICA.  271 

ground,  covered  with  mattings  upon  which  they  laid  the  bodies  after 
they  had  been  carefully  emboweled,  and  the  skin  and  flesh  scraped 
from  the  bones.  The  flesh  with  the  bowels  they  wrapped  up  in 
mats,  and  placed  at  the  feet  of  the  skeletons,  but  they  had  an  art 
of  covering  the  skeleton  with  skins  so  artfully  stuffed  that  it  re- 
tained the  appearance  of  the  complete  body.*  Below  the  scaffold- 
ing the  priests  had  their  habitations  upon  the  skins  of  wild  beasts, 
and  they  were  employed  in  mumbling  prayers  and  in  guarding 
the  sepulchre." 

Garcelasso  mentions  a  similar  custom  among  the  Florida  Indi- 
ans, in  1527.  Ortis,  one  of  four  Spaniards  who  were  inveigled  into 
the  power  of  a  Floridian  chief,  was  ordered  by  this  chief  "  to  guard, 
day  and  night,  the  dead  bodies  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  village. 
These  bodies  were  in  the  midst  of  a  forest,  in  coffins  of  wood,  cov- 
ered with  boards  which  were  not  fastened  but  retained  only  by  the 
weight  of  some  stones,  or  of  some  pieces  of  wood  which  were 
placed  upon  them." 

Though  in  the  last  two  accounts  of  the  disposal  of  the  dead,  that 
of  the  dead  in  Virginia,  and  that  of  the  dead  in  Florida,  it  is  not 
stated  what  final  disposition  was  made  of  the  bones,  yet,  consider- 
ing the  great  accumulation  of  them  in  time,  it  is  probable  that  they 
were  finally  deposited  as  those  of  the  Choctaws,  as  related  by  Bar- 
tram. 

"  In  the  provinces  of  Tatabe  and  Guaca,  near  Antioquia,  on  the 
western  branch  of  the  river  Magdalena,  in  South  America,  when 
one  of  the  chiefs  dies  the  people  mourn  for  him  for  many  days, 
cut  off  the  hair  of  his  wives,  kill  those  who  were  most  beloved, 
and  raise  a  tomb  the  size  of  a  small  hill,  with  an  opening  towards 
the  rising  sun.  Within  this  great  tomb  they  made  a  large  vault, 
and  here  they  put  the  body,  wrapped  in  cloths,  and  the  gold  and 
arms  the  dead  man  had  used  when  living.  They  then  take  the 
most  beautiful  of  his  wives  and  some  servant-lads,  make  them 
drunk  with  the  wine  made  of  maize,  and  bury  them  alive  in  the 
vault,  in  order  that  the  chief  may  go  down  to  hell  with  his  com- 
panions. 

*  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Garcelasso,  in  his  description  of  the  Temple  of 
Talemeco  (which  appears  a  fiction),  says  :  "At  the  base  of  the  walls  there  were 
wooden  benches,  very  well  worked,  where  are  placed  the  coffins  of  the  lords  of 
the  provinces  and  their  families.  Two  feet  above  these  coffins,  in  the  niches  of 
the  wall,  are  seen  the  statues  of  the  persons  who  are  buried  there."  Among 
several  tribes  of  South  America,  the  skins  of  men  were  used  as  stated  in  the  text, 
and  the  image  preserved  suspended  from  a  beam  of  a  house.  So  Ciezar  de  Leon 
relates. 


272  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXV. 

In  ancient  times  there  was  a  great  population  in  these  valleys, 
as  we  judge  from  the  edifices  and  burial-places,  of  which  there  are 
many  well  worth  seeing,  being  so  large  as  to  appear  like  small 
hills* 

When  Guachoia  believed  that  Soto  was  dead,  as  he  really  was, 
though  the  Indians  were  told  otherwise,  he  commanded  two  young, 
well-proportioned  Indians  to  be  brought  to  Moscoso  (commander 
after  the  death  of  De  Soto),  and  said  that  the  usage  of  that  coun- 
try was  when  any  lord  died  to  kill  Indians,  to  wait  upon  him  and 
serve  him  by  the  way,  and  for  that  purpose  by  his  commandment 
were  these  sent  to  him,  and  prayed  Moscoso  to  command  them  to 
be  beheaded,  that  they  might  attend  and  serve  his  lord  and  brother 
Soto.  Moscoso  refused  to  do  this,  and  requested  him  to  command 
the  Indians  to  be  loosened  and  not  to  use  any  such  custom  thence- 
forth. Straightway  Guachoia  commanded  them  to  be  loosened  and 
to  get  them  home."f 

Bartram  thus  speaks  of  the  graves  of  the  Yamasees : 

u  It  was  quite  dark  before  I  came  to  a  bluff,  which  I  had  in  view 
a  long  time  over  an  extensive  point  of  meadows.  I  landed,  how- 
ever, at  last.  This  was  a  high,  perpendicular  bluff,  fronting  more 
than  a  hundred  yards  on  the  river  (St.  John),  the  earth  black, 
loose,  and  fertile.  It  is  composed  of  river-shells,  sand,  etc.  At 
the  back  of  it  were  open  pine  forests  and  savannas.  When  I 
landed  it  was  quite  dark,  and,  in  collecting  wood  for  my  fire, 
strolling  in  the  dark  about  the  groves,  I  found  the  surface  of  the 
ground  very  uneven  by  means  of  little  mounds  and  ridges.  In 
the  morning  I  found  I  had  taken  up  my  lodgings  on  the  borders 
of  an  ancient  burying-ground,  containing  sepulchres  and  tumuli 
of  the  Yamasees,  who  were  here  slain  by  the  Creeks  in  the  last 
decisive  battle,  the  Creeks  having  driven  them  into  this  point  be- 
tween the  doubling  of  the  river,  where  few  of  them  escaped  the 
fury  of  the  conquerors.  These  graves  occupied  the  whole  grove, 
consisting  of  three  acres  of  ground.  There  were  nearly  thirty  of 
these  cemeteries  of  the  dead,  nearly  of  an  equal  size  and  form, 
being  oblong,  twenty  feet  in  length,  and  ten  or  twelve  feet  in  width, 
and  three  or  four  feet  high,  now  overgrown  with  orange  trees,  live 
oaks,  laurel,  magnolias,  red  bay,  and  other  trees  and  shrubs,  com- 
posing dark  and  solemn  shades. 

These  tumuli  might  indicate  an  ancient  cemetery  of  the  Yama- 
sees, or  of  some  ancient  people  who  inhabited  Florida.  But  if  the 
Yamasees  were  here  exterminated  by  the  Creeks,  it  is  not  probable 

*  Ciezar  de  Leon.  t  Garcilasso's  "Conquest  of  Florida." 


CHAP.  XXV.]  OF   AMERICA.  273 

that  the  latter  would  have  been  so  considerate  as  to  raise  these 
mounds  over  the  remains  of  their  enemies. 

The  pyramidal  hills  or  artificial  mounds  and  highways  or 
avenues  leading  from  them  to  artificial  lakes  or  ponds,  vast 
tetragon  terraces,  chunk-yards,*  and  obelisks  or  pillars  of  wood, 
are  the  only  monuments  of  labor,  ingenuity,  and  magnificence  that 
I  have  seen  worthy  of  notice  or  remark.  The  region  lying  between 
the  Savannah  River  and  the  Ockmulgee,  east  and  west,  and  from 
the  sea-coast  to  the  Cherokee  or  Appalachian  Mountains,  north  and 
south,  is  the  most  remarkable  for  these  high  conical  hills,  tetragon 
terraces,  and  chunk-yards.  This  region  was  possessed  by  the  Cher- 
okees  since  the  arrival  of  the  Europeans,  but  they  were  afterwards 
dispossessed  by  the  Muscogulges,  and  all  that  country  was,  prob- 
ably many  ages  preceding  the  Cherokee  invasion,  inhabited  by 
one  nation  or  confederacy,  who  were  ruled  by  the  same  system 
of  laws,  customs,  and  language,  but  so  ancient  that  the  Cherokees, 
Creeks,  and  the  nation  they  conquered,  could  render  no  account 
for  what  purpose  these  mounds  were  raised.  The  mounds,  and 
cubical  yards  adjoining  them,  are  always  so  situated  as  to  com- 
mand the  most  extensive  prospect  over  the  town  and  country 
adjacent.  The  tetragon  terraces  seem  to  be  the  foundation  of  a 
fortress,  and,  perhaps,  the  great  pyramidal  mounds  served  the 
purpose  of  lookout-towers  and  high  places  of  sacrifice.  The 
sunken  area,  called  by  white  traders  the  chunk-yard,  very  likely 
served  the  same  conveniency  that  has  been  appropriated  to  it  by 
the  more  modern  and  even  present  nations  of  Indians — that  is, 
the  place  where  they  burnt  and  otherwise  tortured  the  unhappy 
captives  that  were  condemned  to  die,  as  the  area  is  surrounded 
by  a  bank,  and  sometimes  two  of  them,  one  behind  and  above 
the  other,  as  seats,  to  accommodate  the  spectators  at  such  tragical 
scenes,  as  well  as  the  exhibition  of  games,  shows,  and  dances. 
From  the  river  St.  Juan  (St.  John)  southerly  to  the  point  of  the 
peninsula  of  Florida  are  to  be  seen  high  pyramidal  mounds,  with 
spacious  and  extensive  avenues  leading  from  them  out  of  the  town 
to  an  artificial  lake  or  pond  of  water. 

The  great  mounds,  highways,  and  artificial  lakes  up  St.  Juan, 
on  the  east  shore,  just  at  the  entrance  to  the  great  Lake  George, 
one  on  the  opposite  shore,  on  the  bank  of  the  Little  Lake,  another 
on  Dunn  Island,  a  little  below  Charlotteville ;  one  on  a  large 

*  "Chunk-yard,  a  term  given  by  the  white  traders  to  the  oblong,  four-square 
yards  adjoining  the  high  mounts  and  rotundas  of  the  modern  Indians.  In  the 
centre  of  these  stands  the  obelisk,  and  at  each  corner  of  the  farther  end  stands 
a  slave-post  or  strong  stake,  whe^p  the  captives  that  are  burnt  alive  are  bound." 

18 


274  THE    INDIAN    ANI>    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXV. 

beautiful  island  just  without  the  Cape  George,  in  sight  of  Mount 
Royal,  and  a  spacious  one  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mosquito 
river,  near  New  Smyrna,  are  the  most  remarkable  of  this  sort  that 
occur  to  me.  But  undoubtedly  many  more  are  yet  to  be  discov- 
ered farther  south  in  the  peninsula.  However,  I  observed  none 
westward,  after  I  left  St.  Juan,  on  my  journey  to  little  St.  Juan, 
near  the  bay  of  Apalache. 

But  in  all  the  region  of  the  Muscogulge  country,  southwest 
from  the  Ockmulgee  River,  quite  to  the  Tallapoosa,  down  to  the 
city  of  Mobile,  and  thence  along  the  sea-shore  to  the  Mississippi, 
I  saw  no  sign  of  mounds  or  highways,  except  at  Taensa,  where 
were  several  inconsiderable  conical  mounds,  and  but  one  instance 
of  the  tetragon  terraces,  which  was  at  the  Apalachucla  old  town, 
on  the  west  bank  of  that  river.  Here  were  yet  remaining  con- 
spicuous monuments  as  vast  four  square  terraces,  chunk-yards, 
and  almost  equalling  those  eminent  ones  at  the  Ockmulgee  fields, 
but  no  high  conical  mounds.  These  Indians  have  a  tradition  that 
these  remains  are  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  Indian  town  and  fortress. 
I  was  not  in  the  interior  parts  of  the  Choctaw  territories,  and  there- 
fore am  ignorant  whether  there  are  any  mounds  or  monuments 
there. 

To  coriclude  this  subject  concerning  the  monuments  of  the 
Americans,  I  deem  it  necessary  to  observe  as  my  opinion,  that 
none  of  them  that  I  have  seen  discover  the  least  signs  of  the  arts, 
sciences,  or  architecture  of  the  Europeans  or  other  inhabitants  of 
the  Old  World,  yet  evidently  betray  every  sign  or  mark  of  the 
most  distant  antiquity."* 

Laudonnier  visited  the  Florida  peninsula  in  1564.  In  his  ac- 
count of  his  expedition  he  says  :  I  sent  my  two  barks  to  discover 
along  the  river  and  up  towards  the  head  (Lake  George)  thereof, 
which  went  so  far  up  that  they  were  thirty  leagues  good  beyond 
a  place  named  Mathiaqua,  and  there  they  discovered  the  entrance 
of  a  lake,  upon  the  one  side  whereof  no  land  could  be  seen,  ac- 
cording to  the  report  of  the  Indians,  who  had  oftentimes  climbed 
on  the  highest  trees  in  the  country  to  see  land,  and  notwithstand- 
ing could  not  discover  any,  which  was  the  cause  why  my  men 

*  Bartram.  On  the  maps  of  Florida  are  marked  several  large  mounds,  nearly 
as  low  down  as  the  latitude  of  the  Calloocahatche  Kiver.  At  St.  Petersburg,  on 
Tampa  Bay,  are  two  very  large  shell  mounds,  probably  thirty-five  feet  in  height ; 
two  others  about  half  this  height,  and  one,  which  appears  to  be  very  old, 
medium  height,  about  seventy  yards  south  of  those  mentioned,  and  apparently 
almost  entirely  of  sand,  while  the  others  are  wholly  of  oyster-shells.  The  shell 
mounds  are  symmetrical  cones. 


CHAP.  XXVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  275 

went  no  further,  but  returned  back,  and  in  coming  home  went  to 
see  the  Island  of  Edelano,  situated  in  the  midst  of  the  river — as  fair 
a  place  as  any  that  may  be  seen  through  the  world,  for  in  the  space 
of  some  three  leagues,  that  it  may  contain  in  length  and  breadth, 
a  man  may  see  an  exceedingly  rich  country,  and  marvellously 
peopled.  At  the  coming  out  of  the  village  of  Edelano  to  go  unto 
the  river's  side,  a  man  must  pass  through  an  alley  about  three  hun- 
dred paces  long  and  fifty  paces  broad,  on  both  sides  whereof  great 
trees  are  planted,  the  boughs  whereof  are  tied  together  like  an 
arch,  and  meet  together  go  artificially  that  a  man  would  think  it 
were  an  arbor  made  of  purpose,  as  fair,  I  say,  as  any  in  all  Chris- 
tendom, although  it  be  all  natural. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

Effigy  Mounds — The  Mounds  of  Wisconsin — The  Elephant  Mound — Elephants' 
Skeletons  at  Big  Bone  Lick  in  1735. 

IN  the  vicinity  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  in  the  States  of  Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa,  Michigan  and  Missouri  these  constructions  (tumuli)  are 
made  of  earth,  of  conic  shape,  or  are  in  the  form  of  animals, 
birds,  reptiles,  and  even  in  that  of  men.  In  the  interior  of  these 
monuments  relics  of  art  have  been  discovered  belonging  to  a  very 
ancient  period,  and  consisting  of  personal  ornaments,  domestic 
utensils,  or  articles  connected  with  religious  worship  made  of  dif- 
ferent metals  or  of  pietra  dura. 

The  antiquities  of  the  South  are  remarkable  for  the  great  regu- 
larity of  their  structure  and  their  extraordinary  size.  They  have 
accordingly  been  looked  upon  as  the  work  of  a  different  nation 
and  of  a  different  epoch.  These  mounds  are  composed  of  several 
stories,  and  have  some  resemblance  to  the  Mexican  Teocallis, 
owing  to  their  pyramidal  shape,  their  dimensions,  their  spacious 
terraces,  lofty  passages,  and  long  avenues.  They  are  found  in 
large  numbers  all  over  the  country  from  Florida  to  Texas. 
Smaller  hillocks  placed  at  regular  intervals  often  surround  the 
larger  ones.  Some  have  paths  winding  round  them  from  the 
base  to  the  summit,  others  have  gigantic  steps  like  slopes  in  Euro- 
pean fortresses. 

In  the  northwestern  part  of  the  United  States  the  tumuli  are 
of  a  different  character  from  those  of  the  north  and  the  south. 
These  earthworks  of  the  northwest  are  mostly  in  the  form  of  cay- 


276  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

mans,  serpents,  buffaloes,  and  some  other  animals;  frequently 
they  represent  figures  of  men.  The  colossal  effigies  are  found  on 
undulating  meadows,  together  with  artificial  conical  hillocks,  and 
sometimes  with  enclosure  walls.  These  singular  monuments  can 
more  frequently  be  seen  in  the  southern  counties  of  Wisconsin ; 
some  also  are  seen  in  the  Prairie  du  Chien,  on  the  Mississippi,  to 
the  east  of  Fond  du  Lac,  near  Milwaukee,  Lake  Winnebago,  and 
Lake  Michigan,  over  an  extent  of  more  than  one  hundred  and 
forty-eight  miles  in  length  and  sixty  in  breadth.  The  Indian  road 
called  the  Great  War  Path,  which  extends  from  Lake  Michigan  to 
the  Mississippi,  bending  over  the  Prairie  du  Chien,  divides  in  two 
this  line  of  earthworks,  the  origin  and  destination  of  which  are 
shrouded  in  mystery. 

These  species  of  hillocks  are  smaller  than  in  the  rest  of  the 
American  continent.  They  are  seldom  single,  but  generally  in  a 
line,  or  clustered  in  groups.  Their  height  is  by  no  means  propor- 
tionate to  their  other  dimensions,  varying  between  eighteen  inches 
and  six  feet.  In  the  county  of  Dade  (State  of  Wisconsin)  is  to  be 
seen  a  row  of  these  mounds  representing  a  herd  of  quadrupeds, 
probably  buffaloes,  each  thirty-five  yards  in  length.  A  human 
figure  forty-eight  yards  long,  with  its  legs  apart,  is  distinguishable 
in  another  place.  Such  groups  are  very  common  the  whole  length 
of  the  above-mentioned  road.  Human  bones  evidently  of  great 
antiquity  have  been  found  in  them.* 

The  following  from  an  article  by  Rev.  Stephen  D.  Peet,  pub- 
lished in  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Collection,  will  give  an  idea  of 
effigy  mounds  found  in  the  State  of  Wisconsin  : 

"  In  the  years  1849-50,  about  the  time  the  territory  became  a 
State,  Dr.  J.  A,  Lapham,  who  was  an  early  settler,  became  inter- 
ested in  these  mounds,  and  having  prepared  a  volume  upon  the 
history  and  topography  of  the  State,  he  also  prepared  a  report  of 
these  ancient  works,  which  was  published  in  the  fourth  volume 
of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
the  large  majority  of  these  works  were  situated  on  the  natural 
lines  of  travel,  and  at  those  prominent  places  which  first  attracted 
the  attention  of  settlers.  Many  of  them  have  since  been  obliter- 
ated, and  the  progress  of  civilization  has  served  to  hide  them  from 
notice. 

There  is  a  sense  of  satisfaction  in  perpetuating  this  record,  for 
the  strongest  and  dearest  associations  of  the  prehistoric  race  were 
evidently  clustered  about  these  very  monuments.  Not  only  were 
tribal  names  and  tribal  signs  embodied  in  them,  but  social  cus- 

*  Domineche. 


CHAP.  XXVI.J  OF    AMERICA.  277 

toms  and  religious  rites  were  connected  with  them.  Thus  pre- 
serving these  shapes  we  not  only  preserve  the  divinities,  which 
were  very  sacred  to  the  prehistoric  race,  but  we  preserve  also  the 
symbols  which  will  help  us  better  to  understand  the  primitive  so- 
ciety and  customs  which  prevailed  here. 

A  strange  superstition  seems  to  have  fixed  upon  these  animal 
shapes  to  make  divinities  of  them. 

In  considering  these  figures  there  are  two  or  three  divisions  of 
them  ;  first,  those  representing  inanimate  objects,  such  as  weapons, 
badges,  and  various  emblems  which  were  familiar  to  the  native 
races ;  second,  animal  effigies  as  such,  using  the  word  animal  in 
the  peculiar  sense  of  four-footed  beasts,  and  all  creatures  inhabit- 
ing the  water  or  land  belonging  to  the  order  of  mammalia  ;  third, 
the  effigies  of  birds  and  winged  creatures.  Another  division  might 
also  be  added  and  made  to  include  fishes,  reptiles,  and  such  creat- 
ures as  have  neither  wings  nor  legs.* 

The  animals  represented  belong  to  all  the  different  kingdoms. 
Of  four-footed  beasts  we  have  the  effigies  of  ruminant  or  grazing 
creatures,  like  the  buffalo,  deer,  and  elk.  Also  beasts  of  prey, 
such  as  the  wolf,  the  fox,  the  bear,  panther  and  wild-cat,  and  the 
various  fur-bearing  animals,  such  as  the  weasel,  the  beaver,  the 
badger,  skunk,  and  raccoon.  Of  rodents  we  find  squirrels,  musk- 
rats,  hares,  and  rabbits.  Of  birds  we  find  mainly  the  large  and 
more  common  varieties,  such  as  the  wild  goose,  loon,  crane,  bit- 
tern, sand-hill  crane,  and  the  eagle.  Of  the  smaller  birds  we  find 
many  specimens  of  the  hawk,  pigeon,  snipe,  duck,  night-hawk, 
and  owl.  Of  the  reptiles,  turtles  are  the  most  numerous,  and  there 
seems  to  be  a  great  variety  of  these  represented.  Lizards  also  are 
common,  snakes  of  various  kinds ;  and  of  the  batrachia,  frogs, 
toads,  and  salamanders.  Of  the  fishes,  perch,  pickerel,  catfish, 
and  bass.  These  animals  are  found  associated  closely  together, 
without  regard  to  their  order  or  species,  but  only  according  to 
their  familiarity  or  commonness.  Their  effigies  are  frequently 
grouped  together  on  the  banks  of  lakes."  f 

But  the  most  notable  one  is  an  eminence  near  the  highway 
between  Williams  Bay  on  Geneva  Lake  and  the  head  of  Duck 

*  "The  Egyptian  deities  are  innumerable.  There  were  countless  gods  in 
heaven,  and  below  the  earth.  Every  town  and  village  had  its  local  patron. 
Every  month  of  the  year,  every  day  of  the  month,  every  hour  of  the  day  had  its 
presiding  deity." — P.  Le  Page  Renouf. 

The  serpent  effigy  was  worshipped  in  Scotland,  India,  and  America.  The 
Egyptians  had  various  animal  deities — the  bull,  the  dog,  the  cat,  the  ibis,  the 
crocodile,  etc.  f  Peet. 


278  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXVI. 

Lake,  overlooking  both.  This  is  in  the  form  of  a  bow  and  arrow. 
The  span  of  the  bow  is  about  fifty  feet  across,  which  has  the  arrow 
of  corresponding  size  aimed  for  a  discharge  into  the  Geneva  Lake. 
The  idea  is  truly  conceived  and  executed.  In  this  mound  speci- 
mens of  Indian  pottery  have  been  found. 

In  reference  to  the  elephant  mound,  we  can  say  nothing  from 
personal  observation.  The  first  one  to  call  attention  to  this  pecu- 
liar effigy  was  Mr.  Jared  Warner,  who  says :  "  The  mound  has 
been  known  here  for  the  past  twenty-five  years  as  the  Elephant 
mound."  His  account  of  it  was  published  in  the  Smithsonian 
Report  for  1872.  It  is  situated  in  the  high  sandy  bottom-lands  of 
the  Mississippi,  on  the  east  side,  about  eight  miles  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Wisconsin  River,  is  in  a  shallow  valley,  and  only 
about  eight  feet  above  high  water,  yet  it  is  so  situated  as  always 
to  escape  the  floods.  Its  total  length  is  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
five  feet;  its  width  from  hind-feet  to  back  sixty  feet;  from  fore-feet 
to  back,  sixty-six  feet;  from  end  of  proboscis  to  neck  or  throat, 
thirty-one  feet;  from  end  of  proboscis  to  fore-legs,  thirty-nine 
feet ;  from  fore-legs  to  hind-legs,  fifty-one  feet ;  across  fore-legs, 
twenty-one  feet ;  across  hind-legs,  twenty-four  feet ;  across  body, 
thirty-six  feet;  general  height  (above  the  natural  surface),  five  feet. 

The  late  Moses  Strong,  of  our  State  Geological  Survey,  described 
it  in  1876,  and  says : — "  It  resembles  an  elephant  much  more 
closely  than  any  other  animal,  and  the  resemblance  is  much  more 
perfect  in  this  than  in  any  other  effigies." 

Dr.  J.  S.  Phene  visited  it  during  his  tour  through  the  State,  and 
does  not  hesitate  to  call  it  an  elephant  mound.  He  also  visited  a 
mound  north  of  Prairie  du  Chien,  which  he  thinks  is  an  effigy  of 
a  camel.  It  is  situated  in  a  ravine  which  goes  by  the  name  of 
Camel  Coolie,  the  name  of  the  gulch  being  taken  from  the  camel 
shape  of  the  mound.  We  give  this  account  as  furnished  by  Dr. 
Phene  himself.* 

*  Though  there  are  remains  of  the  mastodon,  the  elephant,  the  rhinoceros 
and  the  camel  in  North  America,  yet  could  these  mounds  have  been  erected 
during  the  existence  of  these  animals?  On  the  Hth  of  November,  in  the  year 
1756,  Captain  Bossu  wrote  the  following  :  "  There  arrived  here  yesterday  an 
express  despatched  from  Fort  du  Quesne  to  our  Commandant,  by  which  we  learn 
that  the  English  make  great  preparations  to  return  to  attack  this  post.  Macarty 
has  sent  a  convoy  of  provisions  to  revictual  the  fort.  The  Chevalier  de  Villiers 
commands  it  in  my  place,  my  bad  health  not  permitting  me  to  undertake  the 
journey.  It  would  have  enabled  me  to  examine  on  the  road  the  place  where  a 
savage  found  some  elephants'  teeth,  of  which  he  gave  me  a  molar,  which 
weighed  about  six  and  a  half  pounds. 

In  1735,  the  Canadians  ( Indians)  who  came  to  make  war  on  the  Chickasaws 


CHAP.  XXVII.]  .OF    AMERICA.  279 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

James  G.  Swan's  Account  of  the  Chenooks  and  Chehalis  of  "  The  Northwest 
Coast"  of  the  United  States — The  Antiquity  of  the  American  Continent — 
How  Long  Inhabited  by  Man — Origin  of  the  Human  Kace — The  Jargon 
Language — Peculiarities  of  Indian  Pronunciation. 

JAMES  G.  SWAN,  who  resided  three  years  in  Washington  Terri- 
tory, published  in  1857  "  The  Northwest  Coast,"  in  which  he  thus 
speaks  of  the  Indians  of  that  territory : — "  Of  the  early  history  of 
the  Chenook  or  Chehalis  tribe  nothing  possibly  can  be  known 
with  certainty.  Like  all  the  rest  of  the  North  American  Indians, 
they  have  no  written  legends  or  any  other  relics  of  antiquity.  A 
few  hieroglyphics,  rudely  carved  on  cedar  slabs,  are  the  only 
records  I  have  met  with,  and  these  were  only  the  Totems  or 
Tomanawos  of  individual  chiefs  or  doctors,  and  served  rather, 
like  the  inscriptions  on  our  grave-stones,  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  the  deceased,  than  to  give,  or  attempt  to  give,  any  historical 
information. 

All  that  we  learn  of  the  early  history  of  these  aborigines  comes 
to  us  in  the  shadowy  form  of  myths  and  allegories,  and  traditions 
related  by  the  old.  This  is  but  poor  authority  for  events  that 
have  transpired  centuries  ago,  and  we  are  only  left  to  speculative 
theories  to  help  us  form  what,  from  its  very  uncertainty,  must  be 
but  a  faint  glimmering  of  the  truth. 

The  tale  of  the  origin  of  mankind,  or  rather  of  their  tribe,  for 
the  Chenook  and  Chehalis  appear  to  have  the  same  account,  was 
related  to  me  several  times  by  different  Indians,  but  they  did  not 
agree  together  in  detail. 

This  allegorical  tale,  if  it  means  anything,  would  seem  to  refer 
to  the  coming  of  their  ancestors  from  California  or  Mexico.  But 
the  Mexican  traditions,  on  the  contrary,  continually  refer  to  the 
fact  of  their  ancestors  coming  from  the  north. 

Some  writers  have  asserted  that  the  Indians  are  the  lost  tribes 
of  Israel ;  others  that  they  came  over  from  the  Asiatic  shores  and 
from  China ;  some  that  they  found  their  way  around  by  the  north- 

found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Ohio  River  the  skeletons  of  seven  elephants.  These  elephants 
were  apparently  found  in  a  marshy  land,  where  the  enormous  mass  of  their 
bodies  having  caused  them  to  sink  to  their  belly,  had  forced  them  to  remain." 
This  is  probably  the  first  notice  of  the  "  Big  Bone  Lick  "  of  Kentucky,  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  Cincinnati.  Croghan  visited  it  about  1764. 


280  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXVII. 

west,  either  by  crossing  Behring  Strait  and  proceeding  gradually 
down  the  mainland,  or  coming  directly  across  from  the  north- 
western shore  of  Asia  in  canoes  or  ancient  vessels,  similar  to  the 
Japanese  and  Chinese  junks. 

Other  and  more  modern  writers  consider  that  these  Indians  came 
from  the  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  being  forced  away  from  the 
buffalo  region  by  their  more  formidable  neighbors.  Of  this  latter 
class  is  General  George  Gibbs,  who  for  many  years  has  devoted 
himself  to  ethnological  researches  among  the  North  American  In- 
dians, and  who  for  the  past  six  years  has  resided  in  Oregon  and 
Washington  Territories.  General  Gibbs,  in  a  letter  to  me,  dated 
Fort  Steilacoom,  Washington  Territory,  July  31,  1856,  writes  :  '  In 
reading  Longfellow's  "  Hiawatha  "  I  find  some  startling  resem- 
blances to  the  Nisqually  and  Klikatal  tales,  so  much  so  as  to  con- 
firm the  belief  I  already  entertained  of  all  these  tribes  having  origi- 
nated east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  in  the  buffalo  country,  and 
emigrated  by  the  northern  passes  to  the  great  western  basin,  and 
thence  down  the  Frazer's  River  and  the  Columbia  to  their  present 
homes,  forced  away  by  more  powerful  neighbors.' 

There  is,  however,  no  disputing  the  fact  that  they  have  occasion- 
ally received  additions  from  the  Asiatic  side,  although  to  what 
extent  is  not  known.  The  prevailing  northwest  trade-winds  of  the 
summer  season  renders  it  very  easy  for  canoes  to  come  over  from 
the  northeastern  Russian  coast;  and  in  evidence  of  that  fact  I  can 
state  that  during  my  residence  in  the  territory,  a  canoe  with  three 
sailors  in  it,  who  ran  away  from  a  vessel  at  Kodiac,  arrived  safe  at 
Shoalwater  Bay,  after  coming  a  distance  of  nearly  eight  hundred 
miles. 

There  is  also  a  tradition  among  the  Indians  that  a  Chinese  or 
Japanese  junk  was  wrecked  years  ago  on  Clatsop  Beach,  south 
of  the  Columbia,  part  of  the  cargo  being  beeswax.  And  to 
prove  the  correctness  of  this  tradition,  there  are  to  this  day,  occa- 
sionally, after  great  storms,  lumps  and  pieces  of  this  wax  found 
on  the  beach.*  I  have  had  some  of  this  wax  given  me  by  an  old 
Indian  doctor,  who  had  picked  it  up  on  the  beach.  The  crevices 
were  still  full  of  sand,  and  the  action  of  salt  water  and  the  sun  had 
bleached  it  nearly  white.  Wilkes  also  mentions  the  fact  of  a  Chi- 
nese junk  having  been  wrecked  at  Point  Greenville  in  1833,  and 
three  of  the  Japanese  were  rescued  from  the  Indians  by  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company. 

These  instances  simply  prove  that  communication  between  the 
two  shores  of  the  North  Pacific  could  be,  and  has  been,  made,  but 

*  "  There  are  no  wild  honey-bees  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains." — Swan. 


CHAP.  XXVII.]  .  OF    AMERICA.  281 

show  nothing  further.  My  own  belief  is  that,  whatever  was  the 
origin  of  different  tribes  or  families,  the  whole  race  of  American 
Indians  are  native  and  indigenous  to  the  soil.  There  is  no  proof 
that  they  are  either  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel,  or  emigrants  from  any 
part  of  the  Old  World.  They  are  a  separate  and  as  distinct  a  race 
as  either  the  Ethiopian,  Caucasian,  or  Mongolian. 

In  the  absence  of  all  proof  to  the  contrary,  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
both  rational  and  consistent  to  assume  that  the  Creator  placed  the 
Red  race  on  the  American  continent  as  early  as  he  created  the 
beasts  and  reptiles  that  inhabit  it."  In  Nott  and  Gliddon's  "  Types 
of  Mankind  "  may  be  found  the  following  : 

"  The  Continent  of  America  is  often  designated  by  the  appella- 
tion of  the  New  World,  but  the  researches  of  modern  geologists  and 
archaeologists  have  shown  4hat  the  evidences  in  favor  of  a  higher 
antiquity,  during  our  geological  epoch,  as  well  as  for  fauna  and 
flora,  are,  to  say  the  least,  quite  as  great  on  this  as  on  the  Eastern 
hemisphere.  Professor  Agassiz  tells  us  that  geology  finds  the  old- 
est landmarks  here ;  and  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  from  a  mass  of  well- 
digested  facts,  and  from  the  corroborating  testimony  of  other  good 
authorities,  concludes  that  the  Mississippi  River  has  been  running 
in  its  present  bed  for  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  years."  * 

Dr.  Dowler,  of  New  Orleans,  supplies  some  extraordinary  facts 
in  confirmation  of  the  great  age  of  the  Delta  of  the  Mississippi, 
assumed  by  Lyell,  Carpenter,  Forshey  and  others.  From  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  successive  growths  of  cypress  forests  around  that 
city,  the  stumps  of  which  are  still  found  at  different  depths  di- 
rectly overlying  each  other ;  from  the  great  size  and  age  of  these 
trees,  and  from  the  remains  of  Indian  bones  and  pottery  found  be- 
low the  roots  of  some  of  the  stumps,  he  arrives  at  the  following 
conclusions  :  From  these  data  it  appears  that  the  human  race  ex- 
isted in  the  Delta  more  than  fifty-seven  thousand  years  ago,  and 
that  ten  subterranean  forests,  and  the  one  now  growing,  will  show 
that  an  exuberant  flora  existed  in  Louisiana  more  than  one 

*  The  Mississippi,  between  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River,  latitude  31°  N., 
and  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio  River,  nearly  latitude  38°  N. ,  changes  its  bed  in 
about  every  hundred  years.  The  first  cut-off  I  remember  to  have  taken  place 
was  the  "Needham,"  which  occurred  about  1828,  or  a  year  or  so  later,  while 
there  are  records  of  the  following,  which  happened  before,  viz.  :  False  River, 
Homachette,  Yazoo,  all  great  cut-offs ;  besides  these  there  are  a  number  that  oc- 
curred previously,  not  known  when  ;  some  of  the  largest  of  which  are  Old  River 
Lake,  Grand  Lake,  Lake  Washington,  Lake  Lafayette,  Lake  Providence,  three 
lakes  in  Tensas  Parish,  La.,  Lake  Concordia,  etc.  Probably  the  celebrated 
geologist  considered  the  alluvium  of  the  Mississippi  as  its  bed,  which,  in  fact,  it 
is,  but  it  often  changes  sides  in  it. 


282  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXVII. 

hundred  thousand  years  anterior  to  these  evidences  of  man's 
existence. 

These  authorities  in  support  of  the  extreme  age  of  the  geological 
era  to  which  man  belongs  are  not  simply  the  opinions  of  the  few, 
but  such  conclusions  are  substantially  adopted  by  the  leading 
geologists  everywhere.  The  rapid  accumulation  of  new  facts  is 
fast  familiarizing  the  minds  of  the  scientific  world  to  this  convic- 
tion.* 

Now  the  question  naturally  springs  up,  whether  the  aborigines  of 
America  were  not  cotemporary  with  the  earliest  races  known  to 
us  on  the  Eastern  continent. 

If,  as  is  conceded,  Caucasian,  Negro,  Mongul,  and  other  races, 
existed  in  the  Old  World  already  distinct,  what  reason  can  be  as- 
signed to  show  that  the  aborigines  of  America  did  not  also  exist 
five  thousand  years  ago?  The  naturalist  must  infer  that  the 
fauna  and  flora  of  the  two  continents  were  cotemporary.  All 
facts,  all  analogies,  were  against  the  supposition  that  America 
should  be  left  by  the  Creator  a  dreary  waste  for  thousands  of  years, 
while  the  other  half  of  the  world  was  teeming  with  organized  be- 
ings. This  view  is  also  strengthened  by  the  acknowledged  fact 
that  not  a  single  animal,  bird,  reptile,  fish,  or  plant,  is  common  to 
the  Old  and  New  Worlds.f  No  naturalist  of  our  day  doubts  that 
the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms  of  America  were  created  where 
they  are  found,  and  not  in  Asia. 

The  races  of  men  alone  have  been  made  an  exception  to  this 

*  There  may  be  mentioned  as  among  these  "  new  facts  "  the  remains  of  a  fire 
found  seventeen  feet  below  the  apex  of  the  "High  Bock,"  which  gave  name  to 
one  of  the  springs  of  Saratoga,  New  York,  described  in  a  book  entitled  ' '  Sara- 
toga and  How  to  See  It,"  by  Dr.  K.  F.  Dearborn.  There  was  a  similar  discov- 
ery in  digging  the  Louisville  and  Portland  Canal  in  Kentucky. 

t  Whales  inhabit  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Arctic.  It  is  but  thirty-six  miles 
from  Asia  to  America,  no  great  flight  for  a  land-bird,  while  the  range  of  sea- 
birds  extends  to  the  limits  of  the  continents.  The  manitee  is — or  was — found  in 
Brazil  and  in  Behring  Strait.  From  this  one  may  believe  that  there  are  both 
birds  and  fishes  common  to  both  hemispheres  ;  but  how  it  was  originally  it  would 
be  difficult  to  decide  ;  but  does  not  the  fossil  remains  of  plants  and  animals  con- 
firm it?  Meyers,  in  his  "  Remains  of  Lost  Empires,"  says :  "  The  flora  of  the 
Mesopotamian  plains  are  very  similar  to  our  own.  Upon  one  short  excursion^ 
we  gathered  twenty  species,  all  of  which  belonged  to  genera  familiar  to  us,  and 
five  were  identical  with  American  home  species."  The  same  author,  in  speaking  of 
the  Valley  of  Cashmere,  says:  "The  flora  of  the  valley  forms  a  striking  simi- 
larity to  our  northern  series  of  plants  ;  many  of  the  species  are  identical  with  the  spe- 
cies making  up  the  flora  of  New  England. ' ' 

Behring  Strait,  which  separates  Asia  from  America,  in  its  narrowest  part  is 
thirty-six  miles  in  width,  with  islands  between  the  two  continents. 


CHAP.  XXVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  283 

general  law,  but  this  exception  cannot  be  maintained  by  any  course 
of  scientific  reasoning. 

Morton  and  Agassiz  assume  that  all  mankind  did  not  spring 
from  one  pair,  or  even  each  race  from  distinct  pairs,  but  that  men 
were  created  in  nations  in  the  different  zoological  provinces  where 
history  first  finds  them.  Niebuhr  also  expresses  the  same  views  in 
one  of  his  letters.  He  writes :  "  I  believe,  further,  that  the  origin 
of  the  human  race  is  not  connected  with  any  given  place,  but  is 
to  be  sought  everywhere  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  that  it  is 
an  idea  more  worthy  the  power  and  wisdom  of  the  Creator  to 
assume  that  He  gave  to  each  zone  and  climate  its  proper  inhabi- 
tants, to  whom  that  climate  and  zone  would  be  most  suitable,  than 
to  assume  that  the  human  race  has  degenerated  in  such  innumer- 
able instances."* 

All  the  tribes  (some  twenty-five)  of  the  territory  (Washington) 
speak  a  tongue  which,  though  sounding  the  same  to  unpractised 
ears,  is  very  different  when  understood,  and  even  tribes  so  nearly 
connected  as  the  Chenooks,  Chehalis,  and  Queniults,  being  only  a 
few  miles  distant  from  each  other,  yet  members  of  the  one  cannot 
understand  the  language  of  the  other.  Still  there  are  individuals 
of  each  who,  from  a  roving,  trading  disposition,  have  become 
familiar  with  each  other's  tongue,  and  can  usually  make  them- 
selves understood.  The  Chehalis  language  is  that  most  usually 
spoken  at  present;  for  the  ancient  Chenook  is  such  a  guttural, 
difficult  tongue  that  many  of  the  young  Chenook  Indians  cannot 
speak  it,  but  have  been  taught  by  their  parents  the  Chehalis  lan- 
guage and  the  Jargon.  The  Jargon  is  the  medium  with  which  the 
Indians  hold  intercourse  with  each  other  and  with  the  whites,  and 
is  composed  of  the  Chenook,  French,  and  English  languages.  The 
first  mention  I  have  seen  made  of  this  Jargon  is  in  "  Meares's  Voy- 
ages in  1788." 

The  Jargon  is  interesting  as  showing  how  a  language  can  be 
formed.  The  words  of  three  distinct  languages — the  French,  Eng- 
lish, and  Indian — are  made  to  form  a  separate  and  distinct  tongue. 
It  is  a  language,  however,  never  used  except  when  Indians  and 
whites  are  conversing,  or  by  two  distant  tribes  who  do  not  under- 
stand each  other.  The  Indians  speaking  the  same  language  no 
more  think  of  using  the  Jargon  while  talking  together  than  the 
Americans  do. 

It  is  a  language  confined  wholly,  I  believe,  to  our  northwestern 

*  It  is  evident  that  the  Creator  so  made  man  that  he  could  adapt  himself  to 
all  conditions  of  climate  ;  and  men  have  done  so  from  the  Arctic  to  the  Antarctic 
circles.  Necessity  in  every  instance  compelled  them  to  do  so. 


284  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXVII. 

possessions  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  originated  in  the 
roving,  trading  spirit  of  the  tribes,  and  has  been  added  to  and  in- 
creased since  the  introduction  of  the  whites  among  them. 

Of  the  origin  of  the  languages  of  the  different  tribes  it  is  im- 
possible even  to  conjecture,  but  it  certainly  seems  to  me  that  if, 
as  has  been  alleged,  these  tribes  did  come  from  Asia,  there  would 
have  been  some  similarity  in  the  languages  by  which  they  could 
be  traced. 

Among  the  Chehalis  Indians,  and  even  among  the  Chenooks, 
are  found  words  occasionally  strikingly  resembling  those  of  some 
foreign  country.  Connath  inisku,  an  expression  of  derision,  which 
is  something  similar  to  the  remark,  You  are  stupid  or  half-drunk, 
is  certainly  very  similar  in  appearance  and  sound  to  Irish  words, 
but  it  must  be  poor  evidence  by  which  to  prove  that  the  Indians 
were  originally  Irish.  But  I  believe  there  are  more  Irish-sound- 
ing words  in  the  Chehalis  language  than  there  are  Hebrew ;  arid, 
so  far  as  any  sound  of  words  go,  it  is  as  easy  to  prove  their  descent 
from  the  Irish  as  it  is  from  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel. 

As  early  as  1819  Mr.  Duponceau  advanced  the  following  :  "  That 
the  American  languages  in  general  are  rich  in  words  and  gram- 
matical forms,  and  that  in  their  complicated  construction  the 
greatest  order,  method,  and  regularity  prevailed  ;  that  these  com- 
plicated forms,  which  he  calls  polynthenic,  appear  to  exist  in  all 
the  languages  from  Greenland  to  Cape  Horn,*  and  that  these 
forms  differ  essentially  from  those  of  the  ancient  and  modern 
languages  of  the  old  hemisphere." 

Gliddon  remarks :  "  The  type  of  a  race  would  never  change  if 
kept  from  adulterations,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Jews 
and  other  people.  So  with  languages ;  we  have  no  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  a  race  would  ever  lose  its  language  if  kept  aloof  from 
foreign  influence.  It  is  a  fact  that  in  the  island  of  Great  Britain 
the  Welsh  and  Erse  are  still  spoken,  although  for  two  thousand 
years  pressed  upon  by  the  strongest  influences  tending  to  exter- 
minate a  tongue.  So  with  the  Basque  in  France,  which  can  be 
traced  back  at  least  three  thousand  years  and  is  still  spoken. 
Coptic  was  the  language  of  Egypt  for  at  least  five  thousand  years, 
and  still  leaves  its  traces  in  the  languages  around.  The  Chinese 
has  existed  equally  as  long,  and  is  still  undisturbed. 

Wherever  the  Jews,  or  the  Chinese,  or  the  Gipsies,  or  Negroes, 
have  wandered  from  one  part  of  the  world  to  the  other  they  have, 
either  in  general  appearance  or  in  language,  retained  a  separate 

*  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  number  of  languages  between  Cape 
Horn  and  Greenland  and  the  philologist  who  is  familiar  with  them. 


CHAP.  XXVII.]  '   OF    AMERICA.  285 

and  distinct  position ;  and  it  is  but  natural  to  conclude  that  if  the 
American  Indians  had  come  from  Asia  they  would  certainly  have 
retained  something,  either  in  language  or  appearance,  like  the 
tribes  of  the  Old  World. 

Leaving  what  must,  to  us,  remain  always  an  uncertainty  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  Indian  language,  and  descending  to  the  practi- 
cal, or  language  of  the  present,  as  we  find  it,  the  most  casual 
observer  must  be  struck  with  the  great  similarity  in  the  endings 
of  many  of  the  Chehalis  words  with  the  Mexican  or  Aztec  tl;  as, 
for  instance,  aquail-shiltl,  the  north  wind ;  parlam-shiltt,  raspberry  ; 
joquitl,  get  up ;  shooks-quitl,  to-day ;  se-cartl,  spruce ;  sheo-quintl,  cedar ; 
sartl,  two,  etc. 

That  the  northern  tribes,  or  those  of  Oregon  and  Washington, 
have  been  accustomed  to  long  journeys  south,  is  a  fact  which  is 
easily  shown.  When  Fremont  first  commenced  hostilities  in  Cali- 
fornia a  large  body  of  Walla- Walla  Indians  from  Columbia  were 
creating  disturbances  in  the  region  of  Sacramento.  These  Indians 
formerly  made  regular  excursions  to  the  south  every  year,  on  horse- 
back, for  the  purpose  of  trade  or  plunder. 

The  wife  of  Mr.  Ducheney,  the  agent  at  Chenook  for  the  Hud- 
son Bay  Company,  who  is  a  very  intelligent  woman,  informed  me 
that  her  father  was  a  Frenchman  and  her  mother  a  Walla- Walla 
Indian,  and  that  when  she  was  quite  a  child  she  recollected  going 
with  her  mother  and  a  party  of  her  tribe  to  the  south  for  a  num- 
ber of  months,  and  that  they  were  three  months  going  and  three 
months  returning ;  that  they  took  horses  with  them  and  Indian 
trinkets,  which  they  exchanged  for  vermilion  and  Mexican 
blankets ;  and  that  on  their  return  their  mother  died,  and  was 
buried  where  the  city  of  Sacramento  now  stands.  I  asked  her 
how  she  knew  where  Sacramento  was,  and  she  replied  that  some 
of  her  friends  had  since  gone  to  California,  to  the  gold-mines,  and 
that  on  their  return  they  said  that  it  was  at  Sacramento  where  her 
mother  was  buried. 

She  was  too  young  to  remember  how  far  into  Mexico  they  went, 
but  I  judged  the  vermilion  she  mentioned  was  obtained  from  the 
mountains  of  Almaden,  near  San  Jose,  California.  But  I  have  no 
reason  to  doubt  the  statement,  as  I  have  heard  similar  statements 
from  other  sources.  These  facts  would  seem  to  give  weight  to  the 
supposition  that  at  some  time  or  other  the  Mexican  Indians  had 
been  among  the  northern  tribes.  Or  it  may  be  considered,  on  the 
other  hand,  by  those  who  believe  in  a  northwestern  exodus  from 
Asia,  as  a  proof  that,  as  the  Mexican  ending  tl  is  found  among  the 
tribes  still  further  north,  the  Mexicans  themselves  originated  in 
that  quarter. 


286  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

Many  words  of  English  origin  in  the  Jargon  are  dressed  in  an 
Indian  phraseology  simply  by  using  the  letter  L  instead  of  R.  The 
reason  is  that  the  Indians  cannot  sound  R  when  used  as  the  com- 
mencement of  a  word.  Thus,  for  instance,  rice  is  pronounced  lice; 
rope,  lope;  rum,  lum ;  bread,  bled;  le  pretre,  la  plate;  key,  klee,  etc. 
Other  words  are  quite  as  difficult  for  them  to  pronounce.  Thus, 
they  call  shovel,  shuml;  vinegar,  mingar.  F  is  also  sounded  like 
P;  as  pire  for  fire ;  pork  for  fork. 

The  Chehalis  is  very  rich  in  words,  and  every  one  is  so  expres- 
sive that  it  is  not  possible,  like  the  Jargon,  to  make  mistakes. 
The  difficulty  of  learning  either  the  Chenook,  Chehalis,  or  Queinult 
language  is  that  the  tribes  are  so  near  each  other  they  frequently 
used  each  other's  words  in  conversation.  They  appear  to  have  a 
great  aversion  to  learning  the  English  language,  contenting  them- 
selves with  the  Jargon,  which  they  look  upon  as  a  sort  of  white 
man's  talk.  They,  however,  are  not  averse  to  learning  the  French, 
probably  because  they  can  imitate  the  sound  of  French  words 
easier  than  they  can  the  English. 

The  tribes  of  the  coast  are  broken  up  into  small  bands,  contin- 
ually roaming  about,  and  the  only  aim  they  appear  to  have  is  to 
become  tyee,  or  chief,  which  with  them  means  to  get  as  much  prop- 
erty as  they  can,  either  in  slaves,  canoes,  blankets,  horses  or  guns, 
and  then  idle  away  their  time. 

It  is  difficult  to  account  for  the  great  dissimilarity  to  be  found 
among  the  Indians  in  regard  to  language.  Living  so  near  to  each 
other,  having  so  ready  and  constant  communication,  living  in  the 
same  style,  with  the  same  natural  objects  around  them,  it  would 
appear  as  if  they  would  be  much  more  likely  to  speak  the  same 
dialect.  That  these  bands  between  the  Columbia  and  Fuca  Straits 
should  differ  so,  is  a  subject  that  I  am  not  ethnologist  enough  to 
discover."* 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

The  Caraibs,  their  Skill,  their  Poisoned  Arrows,  their  Burial,  their  Food,  their 
Vessels,  their  Navigation,  Caracoli — Caraib  Ornaments — Their  Baskets — 
Their  Medical  Knowledge — Toulola  or  Arrow-root,  their  Antidote  to 
Poisoned  Arrows — Their  Fabric — Their  Destruction. 

THE   CARAIBS. 

THE  habits,  manners,  and  many  other    circumstances  of  the 
Caraibs  having  differed  much  from  those  of  the  other  natives  of 

*  "The  Northwest  Coast;  or,  Three  Years'  Kesidence  in  Washington  Terri- 
tory," by  James  G.  Swan. 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  287 

the  West  India  Islands,  and  from  those  of  the  Mexican,  Peruvian, 
etc.,  on  the  Continent  of  America,  it  is  not  easy  to  trace  their  origin. 
In  some  respects  they  resemble  the  Indians  of  the  islands  and  of 
the  continent ;  in  others  they  differ  from  them.  They  might  have 
descended  from  some  civilized  people  who  were  driven  to  the 
West  Indies  by  the  winds  in  former  time,  for  it  is  highly  probable 
that  the  descendants  of  such  a  people  in  such  a  climate  would  de- 
generate into  savages.  The  people  called  by  the  Spaniards 
Guauches,  who  were  found  in  the  Canary  Islands  when  discovered 
by  Juan  de  Belencourt,  in  1402J  had  become  savages.  These 
islands,  under  the  denomination  of  the  Fortunate  Islands,  were 
well  known  to  the  ancients.  The  Greeks,  Phoenicians,  and  Car- 
thaginians traded  to  them,  and  the  Guauches  are,  with  good 
reason,  supposed  to  be  the  descendants  of  the  Phoenicians,  or  of 
the  Carthaginians,  yet  they  had  no  idea  of  their  origin,  nor  did 
they  know  there  was  any  country  besides  the  Canaries  in  the 
world.  Their  complexions  resembled  those  of  the  people  on  the 
coast  of  Africa,  which  is  distant  about  a  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  from  the  Canaries,  but  their  language,  manners  and  customs 
have  no  resemblance  to  those  of  the  present  inhabitants  of  Africa. 
They  now  live  chiefly  in  the  mountains,  and  goats'  milk  consti- 
tutes the  principal  part  of  their  food.  Their  skins  are  tawny, 
their  noses  are  flat,  and  they  are  bold,  hardy,  and  active.  Such 
of  them  as  remained  have  been  in  part  civilized  by  the  Span- 
iards. The  Guauches  retained  no  traces  of  civilization ;  they  were 
masters  of  no  sciences,  nor  had  they  retained  the  use  of  iron. 

The  Caraibs  had  more  arts  among  them  than  the  Guauches,  but 
they  were  not  so  active.  Some  writers  have  given  credence  to  the 
accounts  they  have  met  with  of  the  Carthaginians  having  had 
some  intercourse  with  America,  but  the  fact  cannot  be  substanti- 
ated, otherwise  we  might  be  led  to  believe  that  they  had  planted 
a  colony  in  the  islands  of  the  Caraibs.  There  is  no  difficulty,  how- 
ever, attending  the  belief  that  some  Phoenicians  or  Carthaginians 
might  have  been  blown  into  the  West  Indies  in  very  early  times, 
and  the  navigators,  unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  trade 
winds,  might  have  found  it  impossible  to  return.  Such  a  circum- 
stance is  not  more  unlikely  than  that  Robert  Makin,  in  his  voy- 
age from  England  to  France,  should  be  blown  by  contrary  winds 
to  the  Island  of  Madeira,  in  1344  ;  that  is,  seventy-five  years  be- 
fore the  island  was  discovered  by  the  Portuguese,  yet  that  fact 
seems  to  be  tolerably  well  authenticated.  A  Carthaginian  vessel 
with  both  men  and  women  on  board  might  have  got  into  the 
trade-winds  and  been  driven  by  them  to  the  West  Indies,  when, 


288  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

finding  the  impossibility  of  returning,  they  might  have  formed  a 
settlement.  Or,  if  they  had  no  women  with  them,  they  might 
have  discovered  the  continent,  or  the  large  islands,  and  procured 
wives  from  thence.  In  process  of  time  their  numbers  might  have 
increased  so  as  to  form  the  scanty  population  of  St.  Vincents, 
Martinico,  Gaudaloupe,  Dominico,  and  the  other  small  islands 
where  the  Caraibs  were  settled. 

The  Caraibs  knew  how  to  make  their  carbets,  or  houses,  their 
boats,  their  cloth,  their  blankets,  their  arms,  their  hammocks,  and 
to  prepare  their  provisions.  . 

Father  Labat  has  given  an  account  of  the  only  Caraib  carbet 
which  remained  in  the  island  of  Martinico  in  the  year  1696.  It 
was  sixty-four  feet  long  and  about  twenty-four  feet  wide.  The 
posts  on  which  it  was  erected  were  rough,  forked,  and  the  shortest 
of  them  about  nine  feet  above  ground ;  the  others  were  propor- 
tioned to  the  height  of  the  roof.  The  windward  end  was  inclosed 
with  a  kind  of  wickerwork  of  split  flags,  the  roof  was  covered  with 
the  leaves  of  the  wild  plantain — three  or  four  of  them  will  make  a 
large  umbrella — the  laths  were  made  of  reeds.  The  other  end 
was  nearly  all  open. 

The  hammocks  of  the  Caraibs  might  lead  to  a  suspicion  that 
they  were  the  descendants  of  some  maritime  adventurers  who 
were  driven  to  the  West  Indies  and  there  perpetuated  the  use  of 
the  hammocks,  which  they  probably  had  been  accustomed  to  in 
their  vessels.  This  article,  however,  was  used  by  the  Indians  of 
the  continent  and  of  the  large  islands.  Whether  the  other  In- 
dians learned  the  use  of  them  from  the  Caraibs,  or  the  Caraibs 
from  them,  cannot  be  ascertained.  They  were  made  of  coarse 
cotton  cloth  six  or  seven  feet  long  and  twelve  or  fourteen  feet 
wide ;  each  end  was  ornamented  with  cords,  which  were  two  and 
a  half  or  three  feet  long,  twisted  and  well-made.  All  the  cords 
at  each  end  were  joined  together,  and  formed  loops  through  which 
a  long  rope  was  inserted  in  order  to  fasten  the  hammock  to  the 
posts  at  the  sides  of  the  house  and  support  the  persons  with 
them.  They  were  nearly  all  painted  red  with  the  roncou  or  an- 
notto  before  they  were  used. 

The  hammocks  of  the  Caraibs  were  much  superior  to  those 
made  in  Europe.  One  of  them  would  last  longer  than  three  of 
those  made  by  Europeans.  The  thread  of  which  they  were  made 
was  stronger  and  better  spun,  and  they  were  more  firmly  woven, 
yet  the  spinning-wheel  was  not  known  among  the  Caraibs.  They 
had,  however,  spindles  made  of  the  hardest  and  heaviest  wood 
they  could  find.  One  turned  the  spindle,  another  drew  out  the 
thread,  something  in  the  manner  of  making  ropes. 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  289 

The  Caraibs  were  generally  rather  above  the  middling  stature, 
well-made  and  proportioned,  and  their  countenances  were  rather 
agreeable.  Their  foreheads  had  an  extraordinary  appearance,  as 
they  were  flat,  or  rather  hollow  or  sunken,  like  the  foreheads 
of  many  of  the  Indians.  Their  heads  were  shaped  like  those  of 
other  people  when  they  were  born,  but  the  heads  of  infants  were 
made  flat  by  force,  a  board  being  bound  tightly  on  their  foreheads 
by  a  ligature,  which  was  wound  round  their  heads  and  left  there 
until  the  heads  of  the  infants  had  taken  the  desired  form.  The 
forehead  then  remained  flat,  so  that  they  could  see  perpendicu- 
larly when  standing  erect,  and  over  their  heads  when  lying  down, 
which  were  the  objects  aimed  at  by  this  mode  of  disfiguration.  They 
had  small,  black  eyes,  but  the  flatness  of  their  foreheads  made 
their  eyes  appear  rather  larger  than  they  otherwise  would  have 
done.  Their  teeth  were  beautifully  white  and  even  ;  their  hair 
was  long  and  of  a  glossy  black.  Their  hair  was  anointed  with 
the  oil  of  the  palmachristi,  which  they  called  carapat.  It  was 
difficult  to  judge  of  the  color  of  their  skin,  because  they  were 
always  painted  with  roucou,  which  gave  them  the  appearance 
of  boiled  lobsters.  The  coat  of  paint  served  them  as  a  species 
of  clothing,  preserving  their  skins  from  the  hot  rays  of  the  sun 
and  defending  them  against  the  mosquitoes  and  gnats,  which 
would  nearly  have  devoured  them  had  their  skins  been  naked ; 
but  these  insects  have  great  antipathy  to  the  roucou.  Every 
morning,  or  whenever  they  rose  from  their  hammocks,  they 
washed  themselves  in  the  sea,  or  in  some  river,  and  when  the  sun 
had  dried  them  they  sat  in  their  carbets  until  their  wives  had  tied 
their  hair,  oiled  it,  and  after  dissolving  some  roucou  in  castor  oil 
they  painted  them  with  a  brush  from  head  to  foot.  The  black 
streaks  on  their  faces  lasted  about  nine  days,  after  which  they 
wore  off.  Round  their  waist  they  had  a  belt  which  served  to  sup- 
port some  small  weapon,  and  it  also  had  annexed  to  the  front  of 
it  a  slip  of  cloth  five  or  six  inches  wide  and  of  a  suitable  length. 
The  male  children  wore  the  belt  without  any  cloth  until  they  were 
ten  or  twelve  years  old.  Their  countenance  had  a  cast  of  melan- 
choly, but  they  were  said  to  be  harmless,  inoffensive  people  until 
they  were  inflamed  by  passion,  which  transformed  them  into 
furies. 

The  women  were  not  so  tall  as  the  men,  but  they  were  equally 
well  made,  and  tolerably  fat.  Their  eyes  and  hair  were  black, 
their  faces  round,  their  mouths  small,  and  their  teeth  beautiful. 
They  had  a  gay  and  lively  air,  and  their  countenances  were 
smiling,  and  much  more  agreeable  than  those  of  the  men ;  but 

19 


290  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

they  were,  notwithstanding,  perfectly  reserved  and  modest.  They 
were  painted  red  with  roucou,  the  same  as  the  men,  but  without 
the  mustaches  or  black  lines.  Their  hair  was  tied  at  the  back  of 
their  heads  with  a  cotton  fillet.  To  the  belt  round  the  waist  they 
had  fastened  in  front  a  small  piece  of  cotton  cloth,  worked,  em- 
broidered, and  ornamented  with  beads  of  different  colors,  such  as 
they  made  their  necklaces  of;  it  was  also  ornamented  with  a 
fringe  of  necklaces,  three  inches  wide.  This  article  was  called 
the  camisa ;  it  was  four  or  five  inches  deep,  exclusive  of  the 
fringe,  and  eight  or  ten  inches  wide.  The  belt  or  cord  which  fas- 
tened it  round  the  loins  was  attached  to  each  side  of  the  camisa. 
Most  of  the  women  had  round  their  necks  several  strings  of  beads 
of  different  colors  and  sizes,  which  hung  down  on  the  breast,  and 
five  or  six  bracelets  of  the  same  kind,  which  were  fixed  on  the 
wrists,  and'  above  the  elbows.  Blue  stones  or  strings  of  beads 
hung  as  pendants  from  their  ears.  Infants  at  the  breast  and  chil- 
dren of  eight  or  ten  years  of  age  had  bracelets  and  a  girdle  of 
large  beads  round  the  waist. 

A  species  of  ornament  that  was  peculiar  to  the  women  was  a 
kind  of  buskin  which  was  made  of  cotton.  It  was  fixed  just 
above  the  ankle,  and  extended  four  or  five  inches  above  it.  When 
the  girls  were  about  twelve  years  of  age  they  received  the  camisa, 
instead  of  the  belt  of  beads,  which  they  wore  till  then;  and  the 
mothers,  or  some  of  the  relations,  made  the  buskins  for  their  legs. 
These  they  never  put  off  until  they  were  worn  out  or  torn  by  some 
accident.  They  had  no  method  of  taking  them  off,  for  they  were 
made  on  the  legs,  where  they  were  intended  to  remain.  They 
were  so  tight  that  they  could  not  slip  either  upwards  or  down- 
wards. At  the  age  when  they  were  put  on,  the  legs  were  not  full 
grown,  therefore  as  they  increased  in  growth,  the  buskins  caused 
the  calves  to  grow  much  larger  and  harder  than  they  would  natu- 
rally have  done.  The  buskins  had  at  each  edge  a  border  made  so 
strong  that  it  stood  out  like  the  edge  of  a  plate.  The  upper  border 
was  about  an  inch,  the  under  one  about  half  an  inch  wide.  The 
buskins  were  pretty  ornaments  for  the  legs  of  women  ;  they  wore 
them  all  their  lifetime,  and  were  buried  in  them. 

When  the  young  women  had  assumed  the  buskins  and  camisa 
they  no  longer  lived  among  the  boys  with  the  same  familiarity  as 
before,  but  remained  continually  with  their  mothers.  Hence  it  is 
evident  much  regard  was  paid  to  decency  and  propriety  of  con- 
duct. It  was  rare,  however,  that  a  girl  remained  till  that  age 
without  being  engaged  by  some  boy,  who,  after  having  declared 
his  will,  considered  her  as  his  future  spouse,  and  waited  for  her 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  291 

to  become  of  the  proper  age.  Among  them,  parents  had  the  right 
to  take  the  daughters  of  their  relations,  and  often  did  take  them, 
at  the  age  of  five  years,  and  bring  them  up  for  wives  for  their 
sons.  Only  two  degrees  of  kindred  were  prohibited  marrying  by 
the  Caraibs;  these  were  mothers  and  their  children,  and  brothers 
and  sisters.  There  was  no  limit  to  the  number  of  wives — a  Caraib 
took  as  many  as  he  chose,  and  frequently  married  several  sisters, 
who  were  his  cousins-german  or  his  nieces.  They  pretended  they 
would  love  each  other  the  better  on  account  of  their  being  brought 
up  together,  as  well  as  being  better  acquainted  with  each  other, 
be  the  more  ready  to  serve  each  other,  and  that  the  wives  would 
be  more  obedient  to  their  husbands  ;*  for  the  Caraibs,  like  other 
savages,  including  white  savages,  considered  their  wives  as  their 
servants. 

The  Caraibs  were  melancholy,  idle,  and  the  most  indifferent  of 
all  created  beings.  They  passed  whole  days  in  their  hammocks, 
or  in  getting  in  and  out  of  them.  Only  three  things  could  rouse 
them  from  their  state  of  indifference ;  First.  In  regard  to  their 
wives,  they  were  extremely  jealous ;  they  would  kill  them  on  the 
slightest  suspicion  of  infidelity.  Second.  They  were  so  exces- 
sively vindictive  that  when  their  passions  were  aroused  no  people 
in  the  world  could  be  more  vigorously  active,  or  seek  with  more 
unremitting  perseverance  for  opportunities  to  revenge  an  affront. 
Third.  They  had  a  most  ardent  passion  for  rum  and  other  strong 
liquors,  and  they  would  give  all  they  possessed  for  an  opportu- 
nity to  indulge  in  them  to  excess. 

In  their  wars  they  were  murderous  and  cruel.  The  heads  of 
their  arrows  were  barbed  and  poisoned,  and  they  were  fastened 
to  the  shaft  in  such  a  way  that  when  they  penetrated  the  body 
the  shaft  would  fall  off,  and  the  head  remain  in  the  wound. 
Sometimes  it  was  difficult  to  find  the  head,  and  it  consequently 
remained  a  long  time  in  the  wound.  Then  it  often  happened  that 
the  poison  remained  long  enough  in  the  wound  to  prove  mortal, 
for  if  it  communicated  to  the  vitals  before  the  arrow-root,  which  is 
the  only  effectual  antidote,  could  be  administered,  the  case  was 
without  remedy. 

When  a  Caraib  died  he  was  immediately  painted  all  over  with 
roucou,  and  his  mustachios,  and  the  black  streaks  on  his  face 
made  with  a  black  paint,  which  was  different  from  that  used  in 
their  lifetime.  A  kind  of  grave  was  then  dug  in  the  carbet — house, 

*  These  are  some  of  the  reasons  the  Mormons  give  for  their  polygamy.  To 
these  might  be  added  that  sisters  without  children  would  take  an  interest  in 
the  children  of  their  sisters. 


292  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

where  he  died — about  four  feet  square  and  six  or  seven  feet 
deep.  The  body  was  let  down  in  it,  when  sand  was  thrown  in 
until  it  reached  the  knees,  and  the  body  was  then  seated  on  it, 
with  the  elbows  on  the  knees,  and  the  palms  of  the  hands  against 
the  cheeks.  No  part  of  the  body  touched  the  side  of  the  grave, 
which  was  covered  with  wood  and  mats,  until  the  relatives  had 
examined  it.  When  the  customary  examination  and  inspec- 
tion was  ended  the  hole  was  filled,  and  the  body  afterwards  re- 
mained undisturbed.  The  hair  of  the  deceased  was  kept  tied 
behind.  The  arms  of  the  Caraibs  were  placed  by  them,  when 
they  were  covered  over  for  inspection,  and  they  were  finally  buried 
with  them. 

The  Caraibs  were  hunters  and  fishermen.  Their  food  was  gen- 
erally roasted  or  broiled,  as  they  did  not  relish  anything  that  was 
boiled  or  stewed,  except  crabs.  At  their  meals  they  commonly 
used  two  mattatous,  or  tables,  one  for  the  cassada  or  cassava,  which 
was  their  bread,  the  other  for  the  fish,  fowls,  birds,  crabs,  pimen- 
tado,  and  other  articles.  The  pimentado  was  made  of  the  juice  of 
the  manioc,  which  they  boiled,  and  in  which  they  infused  a  quan- 
tity of  pimentado,  pounded,  with  the  juice  of  lemon  or  some  other 
acid.  The  mattatou  served  for  plate  as  well  as  table,  and  was  open 
to  all  comers ;  for  whoever  entered  the  house  at  meal-time  had,  by 
immemorial  custom  of  the  Caraibs,  a  right  to  squat  down  and  par- 
take of  the  repast.  No  one  was  forbidden,  and  this  custom  was  so 
well  understood  as  to  render  it  unnecessary  to  invite  any  one  to 
eat.  They  never  gave  invitations.  They  stooped  on  their  haunches, 
like  monkeys,  round  their  mattatou,  and  ate  with  surprising  appe- 
tite, without  speaking  a  single  word.  When  they  had  finished  their 
meals  they  rose  with  as  little  ceremony  as  they  used  in  squatting 
down.  Those  who  were  thirsty  refreshed  themselves  with  water  or 
other  beverage ;  some  smoked,  others  lounged  in  their  hammocks, 
and  a  group  or  party  sometimes  engaged  in  conversation.  The 
women  waited  on  the  men,  but  were  never  suffered  to  eat  with 
them ;  they  were  obliged  to  dine  with  the  girls  and  the  young 
children  in  the  kitchen.  Thither,  as  soon  as  the  men  had  dined, 
they  removed  the  mattatous  and  the  provisions  which  remained. 
While  the  mothers  arranged  their  dinners  in  the  kitchen,  the  girls 
swept  the  carbets  where  the  men  had  eaten  ;  wives,  daughters,  and 
young  children  then  squatted  round  the  mattatous  and  discussed 
their  contents.  The  manioc,  of  which  the  cassava  or  cassada  is 
made,  was  a  great  article  of  food  among  the  Caraibs. 

The  Caraibs  seem  to  have  been  the  most  expert  of  all  the  savage 
inhabitants  of  America  in  maritime  affairs.  They  had  two  sorts 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  293 

of  vessels  for  performing  their  voyages  between  St.  Vincent's,  Do- 
minica, Guadaloupe,  and  Martinico.  One  kind  was  called  bacas- 
sas,  with  three  masts  and  square  sails ;  the  others,  called  pirogues, 
had  only  one  mast,  and  were  about  thirty  feet  long  by  four  and  a 
half  in  the  middle.  They  were  elevated  at  the  ends,  where  they 
were  about  fifteen  inches  wide.  Eight  or  nine  seats  were  made  in 
them  of  planks,  not  sawed,  but  split  out  and  made  smooth.  About 
eight  inches  behind  each  seat  was  a  brace  of  wood,  about  the  size 
of  a  man's  arm,  fastened  to  each  side  of  the  vessel,  and,  being 
higher  than  the  seat,  served  to  support  the  rowers  sitting  on  the 
benches.  The  edges  of  the  pirogues  had  holes  in  them  through 
which  cords  of  maho  were  inserted,  and  by  these  ropes  their  ham- 
mocks, provisions,  and  various  other  articles  were  suspended. 

The  bacassa  was  about  forty-two  feet  long,  and  seven  feet  wide 
in  the  middle.  The  head  was  raised  and  pointed  nearly  like  that 
of  a  pirogue,  but  the  stern  was  flat  and  cut  into  a  poop.  Their 
earthenware,  and  various  other  articles,  show  that  the  monkey  was 
an  object  of  imitation,  if  not  of  veneration,  among  the  Caraibs. 
They  had  awkward  figures  of  monkeys  at  the  stern  of  several  of 
their  vessels.  These  they  painted  black,  white,  and  red.  The  bacas- 
sas  had  seats  like  those  of  the  pirogues.  The  vessels  of  the  Caraibs 
were  built  of  the  West  India  cedar,  which  is  scarcely  inferior  to 
the  mahogany  in  beauty,  and  grows  to  a  prodigious  size.  One  of 
them  made  the  keel  of  a  vessel.  It  was  felled  with  immense  labor, 
hewn  to  a  proper  degree  of  thickness,  well  wrought,  and  made  very 
smooth ;  and,  if  any  addition  to  the  height  of  the  sides  was  re- 
quired, planks  were  added  to  them.  This  operation  was  performed 
by  means  of  sharp  hatchets  made  of  flint.  The  Caraibs  had  not 
the  saw,  nor  had  they  invented  the  rudder.  The  steersman  sat 
astern,  and  steered  with  a  paddle  which  was  fully  a  third  longer 
than  the  common-sized  paddles  used  in  rowing.  The  paddle  was 
made  in  the  shape  of  an  oven-shovel,  five  or  six  feet  long;  the 
handle  comprised  about  three-fourths  of  the  length ;  it  was  round. 
The  broad  part  was  about  eight  inches  wide  and  an  inch  and  a  half 
thick  in  the  middle,  but  it  was  tapered  to  about  six  lines  in  thick- 
ness at  the  edges.  Two  grooves  were  cut  to  the  bottom  of  the 
paddle,  which  seemed  to  mark  the  course  of  the  handle  through 
the  broad  part.  On  the  end  of  the  handle  was  sometimes  fastened 
a  transverse  piece  like  the  handle  of  a  shovel,  which  served  to  hold 
when  steering.  The  Caraibs  made  use  of  the  paddles  to  row  with 
as  well  as  to  steer,  but  they  sat  with  their  faces  towards  the  prow 
of  the  vessel. 

Some  of  the  bacassas  had  topmasts,  and  sometimes  the  Caraibs 


294  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

had  fleets  of  twenty  or  thirty  sail  of  the  bacassas  and  pirogues 
out  at  a  time. 

The  surf  breaks  with  great  violence  on  the  coasts  of  the  islands 
formerly  owned  by  the  Caraibs,  and  they  were  obliged  to  draw 
their  vessels  ashore.  The  hauling  them  ashore  and  again  launch- 
ing them  into  the  water  required  much  strength  and  art.  On  the 
windward  side  of  some  of  the  islands  of  the  Caraibs  seven  enor- 
mous waves  break  on  the  shore  successively,  then  a  calm  for  a 
brief  time  intervenes  between  the  next  series.  The  last  three  waves 
are  the  largest.  Amidst  these  waves  the  Caraibs  land  and  draw 
their  vessels  ashore,  fix  them  on  stones  placed  for  that  purpose. 
When  they  re-embark  they  deposit  all  their  goods,  their  wives  and 
children,  in  the  boat.  The  women  and  children  sit  in  the  middle 
of  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  the  men  range  themselves  alongside, 
each  against  his  seat,  where  his  paddle  is  placed.  When  the  great 
waves  break  on  the  shore,  and  the  steersman  sees  the  critical  mo- 
ment, he  gives  a  shout,  and  the  boat  in  a  moment  is  launched. 
The  men  spring  into  their  boat,  the  steersman  last,  and  paddle 
with  all  their  might,  but  in  a  slanting  or  transverse  direction.  The 
boisterousness  of  their  seas  makes  them  skilful  navigators.  They 
sailed  among  the  West  India  islands,  often  visiting  Hayti  or  His- 
panola,  which  was  no  inconsiderable  voyage.  One  of  the  princi- 
pal reasons  of  Columbus  for  supposing  there  was  some  country 
westward  of  Europe  was  grounded  on  the  fact  of  his  having  seen 
the  bodies  of  some  copper-colored  men  floating  on  the  coast  of  the 
Island  of  Madeira.  That  these  bodies  could  not  have  floated  all 
the  way  from  America  is  certain.  There  is  no  current  to  have  car- 
ried them  there ;  or,  if  there  had  been  a  current,  the  bodies  would 
have  been  decayed  or  been  devoured  by  fishes  long  before  they 
could  have  arrived  at  so  great  a  distance.  It  is  more  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  some  adventurous  Caraibs,  on  a  voyage  of  dis- 
covery, or  driven  into  unknown  seas  by  some  tempest  or  hurri- 
cane, were  lost  on  the  coast  of  Madeira ;  for  that  island,  at  certain 
seasons  of  the  year,  is  enveloped  in  an  almost  impenetrable  haze, 
which  renders  it  nearly  invisible  till  a  vessel  comes  in  contact 
with  the  shore.  Such  a  voyage  would  not  have  been  much  more 
extraordinary  than  some  of  the  voyages  the  Caraibs  made  to  the 
westward.  They  were  well  acquainted  with  the  Island  of  St. 
Domingo,  and  probably  with  the  whole  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The 
Cacique  Caunabo,  who  was  taken  by  Columbus  at  the  gold-mines 
of  Cebao  in  St.  Domingo,  and  sent  by  him  prisoner  to  Spain,  was 
a  Caraib  who  had  advanced  himself  to  a  command  in  that  island 
by  his  warlike  qualities  and  abilities. 


CHAP.  XXVIII.]  -OF    AMERICA.  295 

Ornaments  made  of  the  metal  called  caracoli  were  exclusively 
appropriated  to  the  men.  The  metal  called  caracoli  came  from 
the  South  American  continent,  and  has  been  supposed  to  be  a 
simple  metal,  but  no  one  except  the  Indians  could  ever  find  it, 
therefore  many  people  have  been  of  opinion  it  was  a  composition 
made  by  them.  The  English  and  French  jewelers  have  attempted 
to  make  caracoli,  but  they  have  never  been  able  to  arrive  at  an 
exact  imitation  of  it,  for  the  caracoli  of  the  Caraibs  appears  like 
silver  covered  over  with  some  inflammable  or  rather  inflamed 
substance,  and  the  radiance  and  brilliance  of  it  is  matchless ;  nor 
will  it  tarnish,  although  it  lie  ever  so  long  in  the  earth  or  in  the 
sea.  The  nearest  the  European  jewelers  can  approach  this  beau- 
tiful metal  is  by  mixing  six  parts  of  fine  silver,  three  parts  of  pu- 
rified or  refined  copper,  and  one  part  of  fine  gold,  but  it  is  not 
equal  to  the  Indian  caracoli. 

The  caracolis  which  the  Caraibs  made  were  in  the  form  of  cres- 
cents of  different  sizes,  which  were  adapted  to  the  situations  where 
they  were  worn.  They  were  suspended  by  small  chains  of  the 
same  metal  fastened  near  each  end  of  the  crescent,  which  had  a 
loop  or  hook  in  the  middle  for  the  purpose  of  fastening  it.  A  full- 
dressed  Caraib  wore  one  in  each  ear,  which  was  about  two  and  a 
half  inches  long.  Those  who  had  no  chains  suspended  them  by 
a  cotton  thread,  which  was  passed  through  the  centre  of  the  cres- 
cent, the  metal  of  which  was  about  the  thickness  of  a  sixpence 
piece.  Another  caracoli  of  the  same  size  was  attached  to  the  gris- 
tle which  separates  the  nostrils,  and  hung  on  the  mouth.  The 
under  part  of  the  lower  lip  was  pierced,  and  thence  hung  another 
caracoli  about  a  third  larger  than  the  others,  which  reached  half 
way  down  the  neck.  In  the  fifth  and  last  place  they  had  one  six 
or  seven  inches  long,  which  was  encased  in  a  small  board  of 
black  wood,  perhaps  ebony,  and  shaped  into  a  crescent.  This 
was  fastened  around  the  neck  by  a  small  cord,  and  fell  upon  the 
breast.  When  they  did  not  wear  the  caracoli  they  put  sticks  in 
their  ears,  noses,  and  lips,  to  prevent  the  closing  of  the  holes. 
They  had  small  green  stones  which  they  used  as  amulets,  and  some- 
times inserted  in  the  bored  places,  instead  of  the  sticks.  Instead  of 
sticks  and  stones,  however,  they  sometimes  inserted  parrot-plumes 
or  other  feathers,  red,  blue,  green  or  yellow,  which  made  mus- 
tachios  ten  or  twelve  inches  long  on  each  side  of  the  mouth,  both 
above  and  below  it.  They  had  others  in  their  ears,  and  thus 
made  themselves  the  most  grotesque  figures  in  the  world.  They 
had  the  habit  of  sticking  the  hair  of  their  children  full  of  feathers 
of  different  colors,  which  was  done  very  prettily,  and  gave  the 
children  a  handsome  appearance  and  air. 


296  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXVIII. 

They  made  of  reeds,  or  the  fibres  of  the  latanier,  baskets  of  va- 
rious forms  and  sizes,  painted  of  various  colors,  and  worked  them 
into  apartments  or  squares.  After  they  had  determined  upon  the 
size  of  the  basket  they  braided  their  reeds  into  squares  or  copart- 
ments.  Those  for  the  close  hampers  were  braided  in  the  closest 
manner.  After  the  outside  of  the  basket  was  finished  they  made 
a  lining  in  the  same  manner  and  of  the  same  kind  of  materials. 
Between  the  outside  and  the  lining  they  put  leaves  of  the  cache- 
bou,  or  wild  plantains,  which  were  withered  in  the  sun,  or  over  the 
fire,  and  thus  rendered  very  strong  and  tough.  The  leaves  were 
fitted  with  so  much  nicety  and  exactness  that  the  paniers  would 
hold  water  as  well  as  any  wooden  vessel. 

The  Caraibs  were  well  acquainted  with  the  medicinal  virtues 
of  many  trees  and  plants.  With  the  toulola  they  used  to  cure 
the  wounds  made  by  poisoned  arrows.  For  this  purpose  they 
took  the  fresh-dug  roots  and  made  a  patisan  of  it  which  was  ad- 
ministered to  the  wounded  person  ;  and  it  possessed  the  power  of 
expelling  the  poison  from  the  vitals.  Cataplasms  of  the  bruised 
root  were  also  laid  on  the  wounds,  whence  the  poison  was  soon 
extracted.  But  it  was  necessary  the  remedy  should  be  speedily 
applied,  for  the  poison  of  the  manchinell  operates  rapidly.  The 
parts  round  the  wound  soon  perish,  and,  if  the  poison  finds  its 
way  into  the  bloodvessels,  it  always  proves  mortal.  This  noble 
plant,  which  was  called  toulola  by  the  Caraibs,  is  called  arrow- 
root by  the  English  and  herbe  aux  fleches  by  the  French,  because 
of  its  being  so  powerful  an  antidote  to  the  poisoned  arrows.  It  is 
now  cultivated  and  makes  some  of  the  finest  flour.  Few  of  the 
productions  of  nature  are  so  nutritive.* 

The  Caraibs  raised  cotton-wool  on  the  common  cotton-shrub 
of  the  island,  but  they  also  gathered  cotton  of  the  great  cotton- 
tree  which  they  called  mahot,  and  made  thread  of  it.  The  plan- 
tains they  stripped  into  fibres  and  made  cloth  of  them.  The  bark 
of  the  white  mangle-tree  they  also  spun  into  a  kind  of  thread.  A 
variety  of  articles  were  made  from  the  fibres  of  the  prickly  and 
cabbage-palm,  which  they  made  into  a  kind  of  hemp.  From  the 
leaves  of  those  trees  they  made  baskets,  brooms,  hammock-like 
nets,  bags,  and  many  other  utensils ;  these  articles  were  made 
pliant  by  means  of  fire.f 

*  If  the  arrow -root  was  so  efficacious  in  curing  wounds  made  by  poisoned 
arrows,  might  it  not  prove  an  antidote  against  other  poisons  ? 

t  The  use  of  the  palm-tree  by  the  Caraibs  for  the  manufacture  of  various  arti- 
cles four  hundred  years  ago  has  recently  been  adopted  by  the  people  of  Florida, 
and  considered  as  a  new  industry. 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  .OF    AMERICA.  297 

The  Caraibs  were  cruelly  destroyed,  chiefly  by  the  French. 
Such  of  them  as  were  found  in  St.  Kitts  were  massacred  while  the 
island  was  possessed  jointly  by  the  English  and  French.  The 
French  destroyed  or  expelled  them  from  Martinico  and  Guada- 
loupe  because,  after  they  began  their  settlements  in  these  islands, 
the  Caraibs  sometimes  murdered  stragglers.  After  many  contests 
the  remnants  of  the  Caraibs  were  driven  to  Dominica.  Those  in 
St.  Vincents  were  sometimes  employed  by  the  French  against  the 
English  and  by  the  English  against  the  French,  until  they  were 
nearly  exterminated.  The  remnants  of  that  much-abused  and  in- 
jured people  in  Dominica  are  said  to  amount  to  about  thirty  fami- 
lies at  the  present  time  (1817).  * 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 

The  Mummies  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  ;   Where  Found — How  Dressed  and 

How  Buried. 

IT  is  well  known  that  when  Kentucky  was  first  visited  by 
white  men  no  Indian  inhabitants  were  found  in  it,  though  there 
are  found  in  several  portions  of  it  ancient  monuments  similar  to 
those  north  of  the  Ohio  river.  It  is  something  very  remarkable 
that  this  region  of  country  should  have  been  uninhabited  while  In- 
dian settlements  were  found  on  all  sides  of  it.  The  ancient  monu- 
ments found  within  it  would  indicate  that  the  people  who  built 
the  ancient  earthworks  of  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois  also  once 
inhabited  the  region  of  Kentucky,  and  erected  the  mounds  that 
tell  of  its  ancient  occupation.  Some  of  these  monuments  show 
as  high  a  degree  of  civilization,  or  of  progress  in  the  arts,  as  the 
magnificent  monuments  of  the  Mexicans,  and  the  costumes  of 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Kentucky  indicate  a  people  as  refined, 
and  intelligent,  and  skilled  in  their  domestic  manufactures,  as 
will  appear  from  the  following  accounts  of  the  early  discoveries 
of  ancient  corpses  clothed  in  the  costumes  of  that  day,  when, 
living  beings,  they  dwelt  within  its  borders. 

THE  MUMMIES  OF  NORTH  AMERICA. 
(Moses  Fisk,  Esq.,  to  the  President  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society.) 

In  the  year  1810,  two  bodies,  one  of  a  man,  and  the  other  of  a 
child  six  or  eight  years  of  age,  were  dug  up  in  Warren  County,  in 

*  Taken  from  an  account  of  the  Caraibs,  communicated  to  the  American  An- 
tiquarian Society  by  William  Sheldon,  Esq.,  of  the  Island  of  Jamaica,  and  cor- 
responding member  of  the  Society. 


298  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

the  State  of  Tennessee,  wrapped  in  deer-skin,*  and  clothes  of  a 
singular  texture,  some  of  linen  and  some  of  tree-bark  twine  and 
feathers,  with  other  articles,  chiefly  about  the  child,  in  a  state  of 
preservation  like  mummies,  retaining  their  nails  and  hair,  with 
their  skins  entire,  though  decayed,  discolored  and  tender.  I  speak 
of  the  man  from  information,  he  having  been  reburied  before  I 
visited  the  place.  Their  flesh*  seems  to  have  dried  and  wasted 
away  by  a  kind  of  evaporation.  They  lay  in  a  chamber  half  way 
up  a  steep  hill,  under  a  large  projecting  roof  of  rocks,  buried  a  yard 
deep  in  a  bed  of  dry  chalk,  which  contains  a  strong  mixture  of 
copperas,  alum  and  nitre,  and  I  believe,  of  sulphur.f 

There  were  ancient  habitations  in  the  neighborhood,  but  no 
modern  dwellings  belonging  to  the  natives,  within  several  days' 
journey.  Most  of  the  caves,  so  numerous  in  this  calcareous  coun- 
try, were  used  by  that  primitive  nation  for  sepulchres,  in  which  va- 
rious relics  are  found,  such  as  bows  and  arrows,  poles  cut  off  with 
flint  stones,  clay  ware,  fishing-nets,  clothes,  mats,  fragments  of 
baskets,  differently  preserved,  according  to  the  state  and  qualities 
of  the  circumambient  air  and  earth. 

The  basket  used  as  a  coffin  for  the  child,  made  of  split  cane,| 
and  now  in  my  possession,  appears  to  have  been  wrought  without 
the  help  of  an  edged  tool,  though  of  good  workmanship. 

And,  finally,  as  the  variety  of  articles  buried  with  the  bodies,  in 
particular  that  of  the  child,  announces  superior  rank,  we  should, 
from  this  circumstance,  naturally  expect,  had  they  been  members 
of  any  tribe  now  in  the  country,  to  have  found,  if  anything,  a  few 
silver  or  other  metallic  ornaments  upon  them,  instead  of  ingenious 
feather  clothes,  fans,  and  belts,  or  if  there  had  been  a  belt,  it  would 
have  been  of  wampum. 

From  the  immense  number  of  their  dwellings,  as  well  as  from 
their  numerous  public  works,  we  may  compute  their  residence  here 
at  several  centuries.  But  whether  less  or  more,  it  is  probably  a 
full  millenium,  certainly  half  an  one,  since  their  extinction. 

*  These  deer-skins,  in  many  places  where  they  are  mentioned,  are  what  is  com- 
monly known  as  buckskin,  viz.,  dressed  deer-skins.  These  dressed  skins  are  ex- 
actly the  same  in  appearance,  quality  and  color,  as  the  chamois-skins  sold  by 
druggists. 

f  Was  this  person  buried  or  deposited  in  a  cave  ("chamber")  under  a  pro- 
jecting rock,  where  the  earth  accumulated  over  it ;  or  was  he  buried  "  three 
feet"  below  the  surface  of  the  cave  or  "  chamber?"  It  was  the  custom  of  some 
Indians  to  deposit  their  dead  in  caves. 

t  The  outside  of  the  cane  is  split  from  the  stalk,  and  made  by  the  Indians  into 
baskets  of  various  forms.  The  strips  of  cane  are  often  dyed  different  colors. 
Some  of  these  baskets  are  admirably  made. 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  299 

Nothing  satisfactory,  as  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  is  gathered  from 
the  modern  Indian,  about  them,  though  these  tribes  have  been  in 
possession  of  the  country  for  ages. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  these  ancient  ruins  and  relics  have  been 
exposed  to  so  much  depredation.  Valuable  articles  are  lost  by  be- 
ing found.  The  finest  specimen  of  statuary  that  I  have  heard  of 
in  the  country  was  knocked  to  pieces,  to  ascertain  what  sort  of 
stone  it  was  made  of.  It  was  the  bust  of  a  man,  holding  a  bowl 
with  a  fish  in  it,  and  was  constructed  of  a  piece  of  marble.* 

Dr.  Mitchell,  of  New  York,  communicated  the  following  to  the 
American  Antiquarian  Society,  August  24,  1815 : 

I  offer  you  some  observations  on  a  curious  piece  of  American 
antiquity,  now  in  New  York.  It  is  a  human  body,  found  in  one 
of  the  limestone  caves  of  Kentucky.  It  is  a  perfect  exsiccation  ; 
all  the  fluids  are  dried  up.  The  skin,  bones,  and  other  firm  parts 
are  in  a  state  of  entire  preservation. 

In  exploring  a  calcareous  chamber  in  the  neighborhood  of  Glas- 
gow, for  saltpetre,  several  human  bodies  were  found,  carefully 
enwrapped  in  skins  and  cloths.  They  were  inhumed  below  the 
floor  of  the  cave,  inhumed,  and  not  lodged  in  catacombs.  The 
outer  envelope  of  the  body  is  a  deer-skin,  probably  dried  in  the 
usual  way,  and  perhaps  softened  before  its  application  by  rub- 
bing. The  next  covering  is  a  deer-skin,  the  hair  of  which  had 
been  cut  away  by  a  sharp  instrument  resembling  a  hatter's  knife. 
The  remnant  of  the  hair  and  the  gashes  in  the  skin  nearly  re- 
sembled a  sheared  pelt  of  beaver.  The  next  wrapper  is  of  cloth 
made  of  twine,  doubled  and  twisted.  But  the  thread  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  formed  by  the  wheel  nor  the  web  by  the 
loom.  The  warp  and  filling  seem  to  have  been  crossed  and 
knotted  by  an  operation  like  that  of  the  fabrics  of  the  northwest 
coast  and  of  the  Sandwich  Islands. 

The  innermost  tegument  is  a  mantle  of  cloth,  like  the  preceding, 
but  furnished  with  large  brown  feathers,  arranged  and  fastened 
with  great  art,  so  as  to  guard  the  living  wearer  from  wet  and  cold. 
The  plumage  is  distinct  and  entire,  and  the  whole  bears  a  near 
similitude  to  the  feathery  cloaks  now  worn  by  the  nations  of  the 
northwestern  coast  of  America. 

The  body  is  in  a  squatting  posture,  with  the  right  arm  reclining 
forward,  and  its  hand  encircling  the  right  leg.  The  left  arm  hangs 
down,  with  the  hand  inclined  partly  under  the  seat.  The  indi- 

*  By  Moses  Fisk,  Esq.,  of  Hilham,  Tenn.,  April  8,  1815.  In  "Antiquities  of 
the  West,"  by  Caleb  At  water. 


300  THE   INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

vidual,  who  was  a  male,  did  not  probably  exceed  the  age  of  four- 
teen at  his  death.  There  is  a  deep  and  extensive  fracture  of  the 
skull,  near  the  occiput,  which  probably  killed  him.  The  skin  has 
sustained  little  injury ;  it  is  of  a  dusky  color,  but  the  natural  hue 
cannot  be  decided  with  exactness  from  its  present  appearance. 
The  scalp,  with  small  exceptions,  is  covered  with  a  sorrel  or  foxy 
hair.  The  teeth  are  white  and  sound.  The  hands  and  feet,  in 
their  shrivelled  state,  are  slender  and  delicate. 

There  is  nothing  bituminous  or  aromatic  in  or  about  the  body, 
nor  are  there  bandages  around  any  part.  Except  the  several  wrap- 
pers, the  body  is  totally  naked.  There  is  no  sign  of  a  suture  or 
incision  about  the  belly,  whence  it  seems  that  the  viscera  were  not 
removed. 

The  information  we  derived  from  Messrs.  Cassedy  and  Miller, 
of  Tennessee,  relative  to  the  human  bodies  found  in  a  copperas 
cave,  near  the  Cany  Branch  of  the  Cumberland  River,  was  very 
curious  (Medical  Repository,  vol.  xv.,  p.  147).  Pieces  of  the  cloth 
which  enwrapped  them  are  now  preserved  in  Mr.  Scudder's  mu- 
seum, and  an  exsiccated  foot  is  also  there.  One  piece  of  the  fabric 
is  plain,  and  the  other  decorated  with  feathers. 

Since  that  time  other  discoveries  have  been  made.  Thomas  B. 
Moore,  Esq.,  during  the  year  1814,  sent  to  New  York  an  entire 
body  found  in  a  saltpetrous  cave  in  the  neighborhood  of  Glasgow, 
in  Kentucky.  This  was  in  the  state  of  a  dried  preparation,  in  a 
squatting  posture,  with  the  right  hand  encircling  the  knee.  It 
was  wrapped  in  deer-skins  and  artificial  cloths.  The  latter  are 
of  two  kinds — plain,  and  decorated  with  feathers.  These  pieces 
of  antiquity  were  described  in  a  letter  written  by  Dr.  Mitchell  to 
Mr.  Burnside. 

The  fabrics  accompanying  the  Kentucky  bodies  resemble  very 
nearly  those  which  encircled  the  mummies  of  Tennessee.  On 
comparing  the  two  sets  of  samples,  they  were  ascertained  to  be 
as  much  alike  as  two  pieces  of  dimity  or  diaper  from  different 
manufactories. 

Other  antiquities  of  the  same  class  have  come  to  light.  Mr. 
Gratz,  of  Philadelphia,  the  proprietor  of  the  vast  cavern  figured 
and  described  in  the  Medical  Repository,  vol.  xvii.,  has  very  oblig- 
ingly sent  to  Dr.  Mitchell  other  specimens  of  cloths,  things  made 
of  these  cloths,  and  raw  materials,  dug  out  of  that  unparalleled 
excavation.  A  parcel  of  these  articles,  now  in  Dr.  Mitchell's 
possession,  was  accompanied  with  the  following  note : — "  There 
will  be  found  in  this  bundle  two  moccasins  in  the  same  state 
they  were  when  dug  out  of  the  Mammoth  Cave,  about  two  hun- 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  301 

dred  yards  from  its  mouth.  Upon  examination  it  will  be  per- 
ceived that  they  are  fabricated  out  of  different  materials ;  one  is 
supposed  to  be  made  of  a  species  of  flag,  or  lily,  which  grows  in 
the  southern  part  of  Kentucky ;  the  other  of  the  bark  of  some 
tree,  probably  the  pappaw.* 

There  are  also  in  this  packet  a  part  of  what  is  supposed  to  be  a 
Kinnekinnic  pouch,  two  meshes  of  a  fishing-net,  and  a  piece  of 
what  is  supposed  to  be  the  raw  material,  and  of  which  the  fishing- 
net,  the  pouch  and  one  of  the  moccasins  were  made,  all  of  which 
were  dug  out  of  the  Mammoth  Cave,  nine  or  ten  feet  under  ground; 
that  is,  below  the  surface  or  floor  of  the  cavern.  You  will  find 
likewise  two  Indian  beads  discovered  in  a  cave  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  Mammoth  Cave. 

We  have  also  an  Indian  bowl,  or  cup,  containing  about  a  pint, 
cut  out  of  wood,  found  also  in  the  cave ;  and  lately  there  has 
been  dug  out  of  it  the  skeleton  of  a  human  body  enveloped  in  a 
matting  similar  to  that  of  the  Kinnekinnic  pouch. 

This  matting  is  substantially  like  those  of  the  plain  fabric  from 
the  copperas  cave  of  Tennessee  and  the  saltpetrous  cavern  near 
Glasgow. ' ' 

Mr.  John  H.  Farnham,  in  his  description  of  the  Mammoth  Cave 
communicated  to  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  the  fol- 
lowing : 

"  The  greatest  curiosity,  however,  remains  to  be  described.  It 
was,  in  the  language  of  the  people,  an  '  Indian  mummy.'  Mum- 
mies, however,  or  embalmed  bodies,  are  not  found  in  America. 
This  was  an  Indian  woman  whose  flesh  and  muscles  had  been 
dried  to  the  bones  and  kept  in  so  great  a  state  of  preservation  that 
many  of  the  features  were  distinctly  discernible — the  shape  and 
conformation  of  the  ears  were  perfectly  preserved,  and  the  hands, 
fingers,  and  toe-nails ;  the  teeth  all  in  their  proper  place ;  the 
lips,  though  dried,  were  yet  coral  in  their  appearance ;  much  of 
the  hair  was  perfect,  and  the  whole  carcass  and  its  mode  of  burial 
have  furnished  to  all  who  have  seen  it  a  copious  topic  of  admira- 
tion and  conjecture.  Her  posture,  as  she  was  found,  precisely  re- 
sembled most  of  the  Indian  skeletons  that  have  at  different  times 
been  found  in  the  western  country.  She  was  buried  in  a  squat- 
ting form,  the  knees  drawn  up  close  to  the  breast,  the  arms  bent, 
with  the  hands  raised  and  crossing  each  other  about  the  chin,  in  a 
close  position,  as  if  she  would  guard  her  vital  parts  from  injury. 
She  was  found  in  this  posture  inclosed  in  a  couple  of  deer-skins, 

*  The  Indians  (Natchez  and  some  others  of  the  Arkansas),  made  cloth  out  of 
nettle  and  out  of  the  bark  of  the  mulberry  tree. 


302  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXIX. 

which  were  bound  together  by  a  ligament  of  braided  bark,  a 
species  of  manufacture  exclusively  Indian.  There  were  found, 
likewise,  buried  with  her  many  ornamental  articles,  such  as  birds' 
feathers,  colored  and  stained  in  various  ways ;  beads  formed  of 
dried  berries ;  the  skin  and  rattles  of  a  snake  ;  a  fawn's  foot  in  a 
state  of  perfect  preservation,  and  many  other  articles,  mostly  ap- 
propriate to  feminine  use,  and  which  denoted  her  to  have  been  a 
woman  of  distinction.  No  article  was  found  that  denoted  the 
slightest  commerce  with  the  Europeans,  and  the  general  opinion 
of  those  who  have  examined  this  carcass,  and  seen  other  Indian 
skeletons,  is  that  she  must  have  lain  there  several  centuries.  The 
carcass  was  very  light,  though  the  dried  flesh  and  entrails  were 
preserved,  not  weighing  more  than  twelve  or  fourteen  pounds. 
The  woman  was  nearly  six  feet  high.  The  color  of  the  carcass 
was  that  of  dried  tobacco,  of  a  yellowish  hue.  It  was  found  three 
months  since*  under  some  rocks  in  a  neighboring  cave  by  some 
workmen." 

The  following,  from  a  letter  of  Charles  Wilkins  to  the  A.  A.  So- 
ciety, dated  Lexington,  Kentucky,  October  2,  1817,  has  more  par- 
ticulars regarding  the  mummy  precedingly  described  by  Mr. 
Farnham  : 

"  I  received  information  that  an  infant  of  nine  or  twelve  months 
old  was  discovered  in  a  saltpetre  cave  in  Warren  County,  about 
four  miles  from  the  Mammoth  Cave,  in  a  perfect  state  of  preserva- 
tion. I  hastened  to  the  place,  but  to  my  mortification  found  that 
upon  its  being  exposed  to  the  atmosphere  it  had  fallen  into  dust, 
and  that  its  remains,  except  the  skull,  with  all  its  clothing,  had 
been  thrown  into  the  furnace.  I  regretted  this  much,  and  prom- 
ised the  laborers  to  reward  them  if  they  would  preserve  the  next 
subject  for  me.  About  a  month  afterward  the  present  one  was 
discovered,  and  information  given  to  our  agent  at  the  Mammoth 
Cave,  who  sent  immediately  for  it  and  brought  and  placed  it 
there,  where  it  remained  for  twelve  months.  It  appears  to  be  the 
exsiccated  body  of  a  female.  The  account  I  received  of  its  dis- 
covery was  simply  this:  It  was  found  at  the  depth  of  about  ten  feet 
from  the  surface  of  the  cave,  bedded  in  clay,  strongly  impregnated 
with  nitre,  placed  in  a  sitting  posture,  encased  in  broad  stones 
standing  on  their  edges,  with  a  flat  stone  covering  the  whole.  It 
was  enveloped  in  coarse  cloths,  the  whole  wrapped  in  deer-skins, 
the  hair  of  which  was  shaven  off  in  the  manner  in  which  the  In- 
dians prepare  them  for  market.  Enclosed  in  the  stone  coffin  were 
the  working  utensils,  beads,  feathers,  and  other  ornaments  of 

*  There  is  no  date  to  the  article  as  published  in  ' '  American  Antiquities. ' ' 


CHAP.  XXIX.]  'OF    AMERICA.  303 

dress,  which  belonged  to  her.  The  body  was  in  a'  state  of  much 
higher  perfection  when  first  discovered,  and  continued  so  as 
long  as  it  remained  in  the  Mammoth  Cave,  than  it  is  at  present, 
except  the  depredation  committed  on  the  arms  and  thighs  by  the 
rats,  many  of  which  inhabit  the  cave.  After  it  was  brought  to 
Lexington  and  became  the  subject  of  great  curiosity,  being  much 
exposed  to  the  atmosphere,  it  gradually  began  to  decay,  its  mus- 
cles to  contract,  and  the  teeth  to  drop  out,  and  much  of  its  hair 
was  plucked  from  its  head  by  wanton  visitants. 

The  cave  in  which  the  mummy  was  found  is  not  of  great  extent, 
being  not  more  than  three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  extent,  its  surface 
covered  with  loose  limestone  from  four  to  six  feet  deep  before  you 
enter  the  clay  impregnated  with  nitre.  It  is  of  easy  access,  being 
about  twenty  feet  wide  and  six  feet  high  at  the  entrance.  It  is 
enlarged  to  about  fifty  feet  wide  and  ten  feet  high  almost  as  soon 
as  you  enter  it.  This  place  had  evident  marks  of  having  once 
been  the  residence  of  the  aborigines  of  the  country  from  the  quan- 
tity of  ashes  and  the  remains  of  fuel  and  torches  made  of  the  reed, 
etc.,  which  were  found  in  it." 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  depth  of  ancient  graves  vary,  ac- 
cordingly as  the  earth  has  accumulated  or  diminished  over  them. 
Mr.  Fisk  says  the  regular  Indian  grave  of  East  Tennessee  was 
twelve  or  eighteen  inches  deep,  but  this  mummy  of  which  Mr. 
Wilkins  speaks  was  found  about  ten  feet  below  the  present  surface 
of  the  cave  (probably  Horse  Cave),  and  the  surface  of  the  cave  was 
covered  with  loose  limestone  to  the  depth  of  four  to  six  feet  before 
the  clay  impregnated  with  nitre  was  reached.  It  thus  appears 
that  this  mummy  was  from  four  to  six  feet  beneath  the  original 
surface.  From  the  description  of  it  it  is  evident  that  this  mummy 
was  regularly  and  intentionally  buried  there.  From  all  these 
facts  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  many  ages  it  has  remained 
there.  It  is  not  improbable  that  if  careful  excavations  were  made 
to  a  depth  six  feet  below  the  original  surface  of  the  cave,  the  ex- 
plorer would  make  some  interesting  discoveries  and  very  valuable 
contributions  to  the  earliest  history  of  this  continent. 


304  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXX. 


CHAPTER   XXX. 

Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchell  on  the  Varieties  of  the  Human  Kace — The  Settlement  of 
America — The  High  Rock  Spring  of  Saratoga  an  Evidence  of  the  Antiquity 
of  Man — Lewis  H.  Morgan  on  Indian  Migration. 

DR.  SAMUEL  L.  MITCHELL,  of  New  York,  contributed  several 
articles  to  the  collection  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society, 
of  which  Mr.  Caleb  Atwater  was  President.  The  following  quota- 
tions are  from  these  articles  as  published  in  "  Antiquities  of  the 
West:" 

"  NEW  YORK,  January  13,  1817. 

It  was  only  since  I  became  a  member  of  the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society  that  I  began  to  investigate  in  earnest  the  history 
of  the  people  who  inhabited  America  before  the  arrival  of  our 
forefathers. 

My  opportunities  while  I  was  Senator  in  Congress  were  very 
favorable  to  an  acquaintance  with  the  native  tribes.  By  the  de- 
cision of  the  Senate  I  was  for  several  years  a  sort  of  permanent 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs.  I  soon  became 
convinced  that  the  opinions  of  the  European  historians  and  natur- 
alists were  so  full  of  hypothesis  and  error  that  they  ought  to  be 
discarded.  My  faith  in  the  transatlantic  doctrines  began  to  be 
shaken  in  1805,  when  my  intercourse  with  the  Osages  and  Chero- 
kees  led  me  to  entertain  of  them  very  different  opinions  from  those 
I  had  derived  from  the  books  I  had  read. 

NEW  YORK,  March  31, 1816. 

The  view  which  I  took  of  the  varieties  of  the  human  race  in  my 
course  of  Natural  History  delivered  in  the  University  of  New  York 
differs  in  so  many  particulars  from  that  entertained  by  the  great 
zoologists  of  the  age  that  I  give  you  for  information  a  summary 
of  my  yesterday's  lectures  to  my  class. 

I  denied  in  the  beginning  that  the  American  aborigines  were  of 
a  peculiar  constitution,  of  a  race  sui  generis,  and  of  copper-color. 

The  indigenes  of  America  appear  to  me  to  be  of  the  same  stock 
and  genealogy  with  the  inhabitants  of  northern  and  southern  Asia. 
The  northern  tribes  were  probably  more  hardy,  ferocious,  and  war- 
like than  those  of  the  south.  As  the  Tartars  have  overrun  China, 
so  the  Aztecs  subdued  Mexico.  As  the  Huns  and  Alans  desolated 
Italy,  so  the  Chippewas  and  Iroquois  prostrated  the  populous  set- 
tlements on  both  banks  of  the  Ohio. 


CHAP.  XXX.]  OF    AMEKICA.  305 

The  surviving  race  in  these  terrible  conflicts  between  the  dif- 
ferent nations  of  the  ancient  residents  of  North  America  is  evi- 
dently that  of  the  Tartars.  This  opinion  is  founded  upon  four 
considerations : 

1st.  The  similarity  of  physiognomy  and  features.  His  Excel- 
lency M.  Genet,  late  minister  plenipotentiary  from  France  to  the 
United  States,  is  well  acquainted  with  the  faces,  hues,  and  figures  of 
our  Indians  and  of  the  Asiatic  Tartars,  and  is  perfectly  satisfied  of 
their  mutual  resemblance.  Monsieur  Cazeaux,  consul  of  France  to 
New  York,  has  drawn  the  same  conclusions  from  a  careful  exami- 
nation of  the  native  men  of  North  America  and  of  northern  Asia. 

Mr.  Smibert,  who  had  been  employed,  as  Josiah  Meigs,  Esq.,  now 
Commissioner  of  the  Land  Office  in  the  United  States,  relates,  in 
executing  paintings  of  Tartar  visages  for  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tus- 
cany, was  so  struck  with  the  similarity  of  their  features  to  those 
of  the  Narraganset  Indians  that  he  pronounced  them  members  of 
the  same  great  family  of  mankind. 

Within  a  few  months  I  examined  over  and  again  seven  or  eight 
Chinese  sailors  who  had  assisted  in  navigating  a  ship  from  Macao 
to  New  York.  The  thinness  of  their  beards,  the  bay  complexion, 
the  black,  lank  hair,  the  aspect  of  the  eyes,  the  contour  of  the  face, 
and,  in  short,  the  general  external  character,  induced  every  one  who 
observed  them  to  remark  how  nearly  they  resembled  the  Mohegans 
and  Oneidas  of  New  York. 

Sidi  Mellimelli,  the  Tunisian  envoy  to  the  United  States  in  1804, 
entertained  the  same  opinion  on  beholding  the  Cherokees,  Osages, 
and  Miamis  assembled  at  the  city  of  Washington  during  his  resi- 
dence there.  Their  Tartar  physiognomy  struck  him  in  a  moment. 

2d.  The  affinity  of  their  languages.  The  late^ learned  and  enter- 
prising Professor  Barton  took  the  lead  in  this  curious  inquiry.  He 
collected  as  many  words  as  he  could  from  the  languages  spoken  in 
Asia  and  America,  and  he  concluded,  from  the  numerous  coinci- 
dences of  sound  and  signification,  that  there  must  have  been  a 
common  origin. 

3d.  The  existence  of  corresponding  customs.  I  mean  to  state 
that  at  present  that  of  shaving  away  the  hair  of  the  scalp  from  the 
fore  part  and  sides  of  the  head,  so  that  nothing  is  left  but  a  tuft  or 
lock  on  the  crown. 

The  custom  of  smoking  the  pipe  on  solemn  occasions  to  the  four 
cardinal  points  of  the  compass,  to  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  is 
reported,  upon  the  most  credible  authority,  to  distinguish  equally 
the  hordes  of  the  Asiatic  Tartars  and  the  bands  of  the  American 
Sioux. 

20 


306  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXX. 

4th.  The  kindred  nature  of  the  Indian  dogs  of  America  and  the 
Siberian  dogs  of  Asia. 

II.  The  exterminated  race  in  the  savage  intercourse  between  the 
natives  of  North  America  in  ancient  days  appears  clearly  to  have 
been  that  of  the  Malays. 

I  reject,  therefore,  the  doctrine  taught  by  the  European  natu- 
ralists that  the  men  of  western  America  differ  in  any  material 
point  from  the  men  of  eastern  Asia. 

Having  thus  given  the  history  of  these  races  of  man,  spreading 
so  extensively  over  the  globe,  I  consider  the  human  family  under 
three  divisions. 

First,  the  tawny  man,  comprehending  the  Tartars,  Malays,  Chi- 
nese, the  American  Indians  of  every  tribe,  Lascars,  and  other  peo- 
ple of  the  same  cast  or  breed.  From  these  seem  to  have  proceeded 
two  remarkable  varieties,  to  wit : 

Secondly,  the  white  man,  inhabiting  naturally  the  countries  in 
Asia,  and  Europe,  situated  north  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and  in 
the  course  of  his  adventures,  settling  all  over  the  world.  Among 
these  I  reckon  the  Greenlanders  and  Esquimaux. 

Thirdly,  the  black  ma'n,  whose  proper  residence  is  in  the  regions 
south  of  the  Mediterranean,  particularly  towards  the  interior  of 
Africa.  The  people  of  Papua  and  Van  Diernan's  Land  seem  to  be 
of  this  class. 

A  late  German  writer,  Professor  Vater,  has  published  at  Leipzig 
a  book  on  the  population  of  America.  It  is,  in  reality,  a  display 
of  Humboldt's  opinions  011  the  subject.  He  lays  great  stress  on 
the  tongues  spoken  by  the  aborigines,  and  dwells  considerably  on 
the  unity  prevailing  in  the  whole  of  them,  from  Chili  to  the  re- 
motest districts  of  North  America — whether  of  Greenland,  Chip- 
pewa,  Delaware,  Natick,  Totouaka,  Corea,  or  Mexican.  Though 
ever  so  singular  and  diversified,  nevertheless  the  same  peculiarity 
obtains  among  them  all,  which  cannot  be  accidental,  viz.,  '  the 
whole  sagacity  of  the  people,  from  whom  the  construction  of  the 
American  languages,  and  the  gradual  invention  of  their  grammat- 
ical terms  are  derived,  has,  as  it  were,  selected  one  object,  and  over 
this  diffused  such  an  abundance  of  forms,  that  one  is  astonished, 
while  only  the  most  able  philologist,  by  assiduous  study,  can  ob- 
tain a  general  view  thereof,'  etc.  In  substance,  the  author  says, 
that  through  various  times  and  circumstances  this  peculiar  char- 
acter is  preserved.  Such  union,  such  direction  or  tendency,  com- 
pels us  to  place  the  origin  in  a  remote  period,  when  an  original 
tribe  or  people  existed  whose  ingenuity  and  j  udgment  enabled  them 
to  excogitate  such  intricate  formations  of  language  as  could  not  be 


CHAP.   XXX.]  .OF    AMERICA.  307 

effaced  by  thousands  of  years,  nor  by  the  influence  of  zones  and 
climes.  Mr.  Vater  has  published  a  large  work  entitled  '  Mithri- 
dates,'  in  which  he  has  given  an  extensive  comparison  of  all  the 
Asiatic,  African,  and  American  languages*  to  a  much  greater  extent 
than  was  done  by  our  distinguished  fellow-citizen,  Dr.  Barton.  He 
concludes  by  expressing  his  desire  to  unravel  the  mysteries  which 
relate  to  the  new  and  the  old  continents,  at  least  to  contribute  the 
contents  of  his  volume  towards  the  commencement  of  the  structure, 
which,  out  of  the  ruin  of  delacerated  human  tribes  seeks  material 
for  a  union  of  the  whole  human  race. 

What  this  original  and  radical  language  was  has  lately  been 
made  subject  of  inquiry,  by  the  learned  Mr.  Mathieu,  of  Nancy, 
France.  But  what  need  is  there  of  this  etymological  research  and 
grammatical  conjecture  ?  The  features,  manners  and  dress  dis- 
tinguishable in  the  North  American  natives  of  the  high  latitudes 
prove  the  people  to  be  of  the  same  race  with  the  Samoides  and 
Tartars  of  Asia.  And  the  physiognomy,  manufactures  and  cus- 
toms of  the  North  American  tribes  of  the  middle  and  low  latitudes, 
and  of  South  America,  show  them  to  be  nearly  akin  to  the  Malay 
race  of  Australasia  and  Polynesia. 

All  this  may  be  considered  as  correct,  as  far  as  Tartars  and 
Malays  are  concerned,  but  there  is  another  part  of  the  American 
population  which  deserves  to  be  particularly  considered.  I  mean 
the  emigrants  from  Lapland,  Norway  and  Finland,  who,  before  the 
tenth  century,  settled  themselves  in  Greenland,  and  passed  over  to 
Labrador.  It  is  recorded  that  these  adventurers  settled  themselves 
in  a  country  which  they  called  Vinland.  This  was  probably  a  new 
settlement,  so  called  in  honor  of  Finland,  the  region  whence  the 
adventurers  came.  Or,  if  it  were  a  land  of  vines,  the  proof  is  the 
stronger  of  their  southern  encampment.  Thus  the  northeastern 
lands  of  North  America  were  visited  by  the  hyperborean  tribes 
from  the  northwesternmost  climates  of  Europe,  and  the  north- 
western climes  of  North  America  had  received  inhabitants  of  the 
same  race  from  the  northeastern  regions  of  Asia. 

My  opinion  is  that  the  antiquities  of  our  country  were  never 
presented  to  us  in  so  interesting  and  advantageous  an  aspect  as  at 
present.  Their  number  and  their  description  is  more  attended  to 
than  heretofore.  There  are  more  good  observers,  and  therefore 
we  are  enabled  to  form  more  correct  conclusions.  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  vestiges  of  the  aborigines, 
their  manners,  their  languages  and  their  arts,  are  becoming  rapidly 

*  All  the  Asiatic,  African,  and  American  languages  !     Bold  assertion. 


308  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXX. 

more  and  more  faint,  and  many  of  them  will  soon  vanish  alto- 
gether out  of  sight.  It  therefore  becomes  the  Society  and  all  its 
members  to  employ  every  moment  of  time,  and  every  opportunity 
that  can  be  found,  to  delineate  them  as  they  are,  and  to  save  them 
from  oblivion.  My  observations  led  me  several  years  ago  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  two  great  continents  were  peopled  by  similar 
races  of  men ;  and  that  America,  as  well  as  Asia,  had  its  Tartars 
in  the  north  ajid  its  Malays  in  the  south.  If  there  were  but  his- 
torians, we  should  find  a  striking  resemblance.  America  has  had 
her  Scythians,  her  Alans,  and  her  Huns ;  but  there  has  been  no 
historian  to  record  their  formidable  emigrations,  and  their  bar- 
barous achievements.  How  little  of  past  events  do  we  know  ! 

There  is  a  class  of  antiquities  which  present  themselves  on 
digging  from  thirty  to  fifty  feet  below  the  present  surface  of  the 
ground.  They  occur  in  the  form  of  firebrands,  split  wood,  ashes, 
coals,  and  occasionally  of  tools  and  utensils,  buried  to  those 
depths  by  the  alluvion,  and  have  been  observed,  as  I  am  informed, 
in  Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  North  Carolina,  and 
doubtless  in  other  places.  I  have  heard  of  some  in  Ohio.  I  wish 
the  members  of  the  Society  would  exert  themselves  with  all  possi- 
ble diligence  to  ascertain  and  collect  the  facts  of  this  description. 
They  will  be  exceedingly  curious  both  to  the  geologist  and  to  the 
historian.  After  such  facts  shall  have  been  collected  and  method- 
ized, we  may,  perhaps,  draw  some  satisfactory  conclusions." 

Of  this  last  class  of  antiquities,  Saratoga  in  the  State  of  New 
York  gives  a  very  interesting  example. 

The  High  Rock  Spring  at  Saratoga  derives  its  name  from  the 
cone-shaped  rock,  about  three  feet  high,  which  the  water  of  the 
spring  has  formed  by  the  deposits  it  has  made  in  many  centuries. 
The  orifice  at  the  summit  of  the  rock,  through  which  the  water 
originally  issued,  is  about  eight  or  ten  inches  in  diameter  (as  well 
as  I  can  remember).  In  the  year  1866,  the  proprietors  of  the 
spring,  u  convinced  that  by  stopping  the  lateral  outlet  they  could 
cause  the  waters  to  issue  again  from  the  mouth  of  the  rock,  they 
therefore  employed  a  number  of  men  to  undermine  the  mound 
(rock),  and  with  a  powerful  hoisting-derrick  to  lift  it  off  and  set  it 
one  side. 

Just  below  the  mound  were  found  four  logs,  two  of  which 
rested  upon  the  other  two  at  right  angles,  forming  a  curb.  Under 
the  logs  were  bundles  of  twigs  resting  upon  the  dark  brown  or 
black  soil  of  a  previous  swamp.  Evidently  some  ancient  seekers 
after  health  had  found  the  spring  in  the  swamp,  and,  to  make  it 
more  convenient  to  secure  water,  had  piled  brush  around  it  and 
then  laid  down  the  logs  as  a  curb. 


CHAP.  XXX.J  OF    AMERICA.  309 

The  rock,  which  weighed  several  tons,  is  composed  of  tufa  and 
carbonate  of  lime,  and  was  formed  in  the  same  manner  as  stalac- 
tites and  stalagmites  are  formed.  As  the  water  flowed  over  the 
logs  the  evaporation  of  a  portion  of  the  carbonic  acid  gas  caused 
the  deposition  of  an  equivalent  quantity  of  insoluble  carbonate  of 
lime,  which,  layer  by  layer,  built  up  the  mound.  A  fragment  of 
the  rock  which  I  possess  contains  leaves,  hazel-nuts,  and  small 
shells,  which,  falling  from  time  to  time  upon  it,  were  encrusted 
and  finally  imprisoned  in  the  stony  mass. 

Below  the  rock  the  workmen  followed  the  spring  through  four 
feet  of  tufa  and  muck ;  then  they  came  to  a  layer  of  solid  tufa  two 
feet  thick ;  then  one  foot  of  muck,  in  which  they  found  another 
log.  Below  this  were  three  feet  of  tufa ;  and  there,  seventeen  feet 
below  the  apex  of  the  mound,  they  found  the  embers  and  char- 
coal of  an  ancient  fire."* 

In  making  the  Portland  Canal,  from  Louisville  to  Portland  be- 
low the  rapids  of  the  Ohio  River,  a  similar  relic  was  found,  viz. : 
Ashes,  coals,  and  partly-consumed  logs,  evidence  that  a  fire  had 
been  made  there  at  some  very  remote  period,  when  the  banks 
of  the  Ohio  were  much  lower  than  at  present.  The  average 
depth  of  the  excavation  of  the  canal  was  thirty -three  feet.  But 
I  know  not  the  depth  at  which  this  evidence  of  ancient  occupa- 
tion was  found. 

Whether  the  Indian  family  reached  North  or  South  America 
first,  on  the  assumption  that  it  had  an  Asiatic  origin,  we  are 
left  to  a  choice  of  probabilities.  It  is  plain,  however,  that 
the  physical  considerations  and  the  type  of  men  in  north- 
eastern Asia  point  to  this  section  of  Asia  as  the  source,  and 
to  the  Aleutian  Islands  as  the  probable  avenue  of  this  antecedent 
emigration.  This  is  no  new  hypothesis.  A  belief  in  his  Asiatic 
origin  was  one  of  the  first  conclusions  which  followed  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Indian,  and  a  knowledge  of  his  physical  character- 
istics. Subsequent  investigations  have  strengthened  the  grounds 
upon  which  this  belief  was  based. 

It  will  furnish  a  not  inappropriate  conclusion  to  these  articles 
to  relate  briefly  the  facts  and  reasons  which  support  the  inference 
of  a  derivation  of  the  Indian  family  from  northwestern  Asia. 

In  the  first  place  the  number  of  distinct  types  of  mankind  in 
Asia,  contrasted  with  the  single  type,  aside  from  the  Eskimo,  exist- 
ing in  America,  show  conclusively  that  the  Asiatic  continent  has 
been  occupied  by  man  much  the  longer  of  the  two.  The  striking 

*  "Saratoga  and  How  to  See  It,"  by  Dr.  R.  F.  Dearborn. 


310  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXX. 

affinities  in  physical  characteristics  between  the  Mongolian  and 
Tungusian  stocks  of  Asia  and  the  Indian  stocks  of  America,  and 
the  near  approach  of  other  Asiatic  stocks  to  both,  seem  to  compel 
us  to  assume  an  Asiatic  origin  for  the  American  Indian,  unless 
the  independent  creation  of  man  in  America  is  assumed.  Sec- 
ondly, there  are  two  existing  avenues  between  the  two  continents, 
one  of  which,  across  the  Straits  of  Behring,  has  been  actually  proven 
to  be  practicable  by  the  Eskimo  migration,  and  the  other,  by  the 
Aleutian  Islands,  is  rendered  a  probable  route  by  the  fact  that  most 
of  these  islands  are  now  inhabited  by  a  people  of  common  de- 
scent, who  have  spread  from  island  to  island.  Whether  the  Es- 
kimo had  been  forced  northward  in  Asia  by  the  pressure  of  cir- 
cumstances is  immaterial,  since  it  was  necessary  that  the)'  should 
be  hyperborean  in  their  habits  to  render  possible  their  transit 
across  the  icy  strait,  which  is  about  fifty  miles  wide  where  it  is 
narrowest.*  But  it  was  not  necessary  that  the  ancestors  of  the 
American  aborigines  should  have  become  hyperboreans  in  Asia 
to  explain  their  emigration  to  America.  The  Aleutian  Islands 
furnish  a  possible  as  well  as  a  much  more  probable  route.  It  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  it  was  a  deliberate  migration  in  members 
which  brought  the  Ganowanianf  family  to  America  if  they  came 
from  Asia.  The  natural  obstacles  presented  to  a  transit  by  the 
Aleutian  Islands  lead  to  the  inference  that  the  migration  must 
have  been  purely  accidental,  and  limited,  it  is  not  unlikely,  to  a 
canoe-load  of  men  and  women.  It  may  have  been  repeated  at 
several  different  times  in  different  ages,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, but  limited  in  each  case  to  inconsiderable  numbers.  If 
such  accidental  immigrants  chanced  to  be  of  different  stocks,  the 
later  ones  would  make  but  a  slight  impression  upon  the  first 
stock  that  reached  America.  These  islands,  the  summits  of  a 
chain  of  submarine  mountains,  stretch  continuously  and  substan- 
tially in  sight  of  each  other  from  the  peninsula  of  Alaska  to  the 
Cape  of  Kamtchatka,  with  the  following  principal  interruptions  : 
The  Amoukhta  pass,  separating  two  groups  of  these  islands,  is 

*  The  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia  gives  "  thirty-nine  or  forty  miles  in  breadth" 
in  the  narrowest  part,  viz.  :  From  East  Cape  to  Cape  Prince  of  Wales.  Three 
small  islands  lie  in  the  middle  channel  of  the  Straits,  the  first  bearing  26°  south- 
east, twenty-four  miles  from  the  eastern  promontory  ;  the  next,  which  is  the 
largest,  lies  six  miles  farther,  in  a  northeast  direction  ;  the  third,  and  smallest, 
is  ten  miles  distant,  south  by  east. 

The  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica  gives  thirty-six  miles  as  the  width  in  the  nar- 
rowest part  of  the  Strait. 

f  Proposed  name  for  the  American  Indian  family,  formed  from  two  words  of 
the  Seneca  language,  signifying  bow  and  arrow. 


CHAP.  XXX.]  OF    AMERICA.  311 

about  sixty  miles  across  ;  from  the  island  Goreloi  to  the  island  of 
Semisopochnoi  is  the  same  distance ;  from  the  latter  to  Scmitchi 
Island  is  about  fifty  miles,  and  from  the  island  of  Attou  to 
Copper  Island — which  is  much  the  widest  interval  between  any 
two  islands  of  the  chain — is  two  hundred  and  thirty  miles  ;  and 
from  Behring's  Island,  the  last  and  one  of  the  largest  of  the  series, 
to  Cape  Kamtchatka  on  the  Asiatic  coast,  is  one  hundred  miles.* 
A  migration  by  the  way  of  these  islands  is  not  improbable,  and 
there  are  two  facts  which  create  a  presumption  in  favor  of  the  oc- 
currence of  such  a  migration  by  the  mere  accidents  of  the  sea  be- 
fore the  lapse  of  many  ages  after  Asia  was  overspread  with  inhabi- 
tants. The  first  is  the  ocean  stream  of  the  Asiatic  coast — the 
counterpart  of  the  Gulf  stream  of  North  America — which,  rising  in 
the  South  Pacific  and  flowing  northward,  skirts  the  shores  of  the 
Japanese  and  Kurulian  Islands  nearly  to  the  cape  of  the  Kamt- 
chatka, where  it  is  deflected  to  the  eastward  and  divides  into  two 
streams.  One  of  these,  following  the  coast,  enters  Behring  Strait, 
but  the  other,  the  main  stream,  crosses  the  Pacific  eastward  along 
the  south  shores  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  to  Alaska,  where  it  turns 
down  the  American  coast.  It  is  not  entirely  lost  until  it  reaches 
the  shores  of  California.  This  ocean  stream  might  easily  bear  off 
canoemen,  once  thrown  upon  its  current,  from  the  Kurulian 
Islands,  and  from  the  coast  of  Asia  to  the  Aleutian  Islands.  After 
Attou  Island,  which  is  but  four  hundred  and  forty  miles  from  the 
nearest  point  in  Asia,  was  gained,  the  problem  of  reaching  Alaska 
would  be  substantially  solved. f  It  would  thus  seem  that  an  in- 

*  "  Map  of  Alaska  and  the  Aleutian  Islands,  U.  S.  Coast  Survey  Office."  In 
these  islands,  when  first  discovered,  more  than  sixty  families  were  found  whose 
language  had  no  relation  either  to  that  of  Kamtchatka  or  to  any  of  the  oriental 
languages  of  Asia.  It  is  a  dialect  spoken  in  the  other  islands  adjacent  to  America, 
which  seems  to  indicate  that  they  have  been  peopled  by  the  Americans,  and  not 
by  the  Asiatics.  They  have  no  wood  on  these  islands  besides  that  which  is 
floated  to  them  by  the  sea,  and  this  wood  seems  to  come  to  them  from  the  south, 
for  the  camphor-tree  of  Japan  has  been  found  on  the  coasts  of  these  islands. — 
Rees'  Ency.  The  Fox  Islands,  a  part  of  the  Aleutian,  are  inhabited  by  animals 
from  America,  such  as  bear,  foxes,  beaver,  etc. 

f  From  east  to  west  the  Aleutian  Islands  are  1st,  Behring,  one  hundred  and 
four  miles  long,  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  from  Kamtchatka  ;  2d,  Copper, 
twenty -five  miles  long,  east  from  Behring  (distance  not  given)  ;  3d,  Attou,  sixty 
miles  long  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  miles  from  Copper  Island ;  4th, 
Agattoo,  six  miles  long,  twenty  miles  from  Attou ;  5th,  Buldyr,  six  by  ten 
miles,  seventy  miles  from  Agattoo.  Then  come  Omnak,  Oonalaska,  Oonemak, 
next  to  Alaska.  Neither  the  size  nor  distance  from  each  other  of  these  three 
last  islands  are  given  in  the  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia,  from  which  the  preceding 
has  been  taken. 


312  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

strumentality  was  provided  in  this  ocean  stream  whereby  the 
American  continent  might  become  accessible  from  Asia  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  human  family.  The  second  fact  is  the  character 
and  position  of  the  Amoor,  one  of  the  great  rivers  of  Asia,  which 
stands  in  nearly  the  same  relation  to  the  northwestern  section  of 
that  continent  that  the  Columbia  does  to  the  northwestern  portion 
of  America.  This  river,  from  its  fisheries,  must  have  attracted 
inhabitants  to  its  banks  at  a  very  early  period  in  Asiatic  history. 
Its  occupation  would,  in  due  time,  have  led  to  boat  navigation, 
to  familiarity  with  the  sea,  to  the  exploration  and  occupation  of 
the  adjacent  seacoast  and  islands,  and  would  thus  have  prepared 
the  way  for  peopling  the  Aleutian  Islands  in  the  manner  stated. 
It  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  Tungusian  and  Mongolian  stocks,  the 
nearest  in  type  of  the  existing  Asiatics  to  the  American  aborigines, 
still  hold  the  Amoor  river,  upon  which  they  have  lived  from  time 
immemorial. 

In  the  third  and  last  place,  the  system  of  consanguinity  and 
affinity  of  the  several  Asiatic  stocks  agrees  with  that  of  the  Ameri- 
can aborigines.  Omitting  all  discussion  of  the  results  of  a  com- 
parison of  systems,  it  may  be  stated  that  the  system  of  the  Seneca- 
Iroquois  Indians  of  New  York  is  identical  not  only  in  radical 
characteristics,  but  also  in  the  greater  portion  of  its  minute  de- 
tails with  that  of  the  Tamil  people  of  South  India.  This  identity 
in  complicated  and  elaborate  systems  is  hardly  accidental.* 


CHAPTER    XXXI. 

Captain  John  Dundas  Cochrane's  Account  of  Nishney  Kolymsk — Amusements — 
Cold  Weather — Occupations  of  the  People — Animals — Baron  Wrangel — 
Trip  to  the  Fair  on  the  Aniuy— The  Yukagiri— The  Fortress— The  Tchuk- 
chi — The  Fair — Chess — Tchukchi  Reindeer — The  Tchukchi  Peninsula, 
Tchukchi. 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  DUNDAS  COCHRANE,  R.  N.,  made  in  the  years 
1820-21,  a  land  journey  from  Dieppe,  in  France,  to  Nishney  Ko- 
lymsk, on  the  river  Kolyma,  the  most  eastern  river  of  importance 
of  Asia  that  empties  into  the  Frozen  Ocean.  He  speaks  of  the 
Chukches  thus :  Nishney  Kolymsk  may  be  termed  a  large  town 
in  this  part  of  the  world,  containing,  as  it  does,  nearly  fifty  dwell- 
ings, and  about  four  hundred  people  (or  eighty  families),  which 

*  "  Indian  Migrations,"  by  Lewis  H.  Morgan,  in  "The  Indian  Miscellany." 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  OF    AMERICA.  313 

is  three  times  the  number  of  any  place  between  it  and  Yakutsk  (a 
distance  of  two  thousand  miles).  It  stands  on  the  east  side  of 
an  island  in  the  Kolyma,  about  twenty-five  miles  long,  and  oppo- 
site to  the  junction  of  the  river  Aniuy.  Formerly  the  town  was 
eight  miles  farther  down,  but  the  bleakness  of  the  situation,  and 
its  consequent  exposure  to  the  northern  blasts,  induced  its  remo- 
val to  its  present  site,  where  it  is  protected  from  them  by  a  range 
of  hills.  The  island  is  covered  only  with  low  brushwood,  but  re- 
ceives fine  timber,  which  is  floated  down  the  river.  No  cultivation 
can,  of  course,  be  expected  in  a  climate  wherein  scarcely  a  blade 
of  grass  is  to  be  seen.  The  horses  which  do  sometimes  tarry  in 
the  vicinity  for  a  few  days'  feed  upon  the  tops,  stumps,  and  bark 
of  the  bushes,  or  upon  the  moss.  The  inhabitants  manage,  not- 
withstanding, with  great  labor,  to  feed  a  couple  of  cows,  though 
to  do  this  they  are  obliged  to  bring  the  hay  eight  miles.  They 
are  mostly  Cossacks,  with  half  a  dozen  pedlers  and  three  priests, 
the  whole  of  whom  carry  on  some  traffic. 

On  the  morning  of  my  arrival  at  Nishney  Kolymsk,  and  while 
at  breakfast,  I  received  as  a  new-year's  gift  a  couple  of  large  fish 
in  a  frozen  state,  weighing  each  about  two  hundred  pounds. 

Baron  Wrangel's  expedition  I  found  in  a  state  of  much  forward- 
ness, great  exertions  having  been  made  in  collecting  dogs  and 
drivers,  and  provisions,  as  well  as  in  making  new  nartes,  or  sleds. 
I  learned  that  he  would  depart  from  Kolyma  in  the  month  of 
March,  in  two  divisions,  one  having  for  its  object  the  solution  of 
the  question  regarding  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  the  North- 
east Cape  of  Asia,  and  the  other  a  journey  due  north  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Kolyma,  in  search  of  a  real  or  supposed  continent, 
or  rather  the  continuation  of  Asia  to  where  it  is  imagined  by 
some  to  join  the  continent  of  America.  I  did  not  hesitate  to  vol- 
unteer my  services,  but  in  consequence  of  being  a  foreigner  I  found 
my  services  could  not  be  accepted  without  special  permission  of 
the  government.  I  therefore  made  up  my  mind  to  set  out  for  the 
fair  of  the  Tchukchi,  and  to  try  my  fortune  in  getting  a  passage 
through  their  country,  and  so  cross  over  Behring  Straits  for 
America. 

During  the  months  of  January  and  February  (1821)  we  were 
variously  employed,  as  the  nature  of  the  weather  would  allow, 
•passing  the  time  agreeably  and  happy  enough.  Among  other 
things  I  brought  up  my  journal,  and  worked  some  observations 
for  the  latitudes  and  longitudes  of  Nishney  Kolymsk.  Sometimes 
we  joined  in  the  amusements  of  the  natives,  and  visited  them  in 
their  feasts,  which  are  very  numerous,  and  at  which  there  is  a  great 


314  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

consumption  of  liquor.  The  ice  mountain  was,  of  course,  one  of 
our  amusements,  and  our  time  was  far  from  hanging  heavy.  I 
descended  it  daily  during  the  fetes. 

The  weather  proved  exceedingly  cold  in  January  and  February, 
but  never  so  severe  as  to  prevent  bur  walks,  except  during  those 
times  when  the  wind  was  high ;  it  then  became  insupportable 
out  of  doors.  Forty  degrees  of  frost  of  Reaumur  never  appeared 
to  affect  us  in  calm  weather  so  much  as  ten  or  fifteen  during  the 
time  of  a  breeze.  Yet  to  witness  the  aurora  borealis  I  have  re- 
peatedly quitted  my  bed  in  these  extremes  of  cold,  without  shoes 
or  stockings,  and  with  no  dress  on  but  a  parka,  or  frock. 

To  prove  that  I  do  not  magnify  the  extremes  of  cold  in  that  part 
of  the  world,  I  beg  to  refer  to  Mr.  Sauer's  account  of  Billings's  ex- 
pedition, and  the  present  Admiral  Saritcheff's  account  of  the  same, 
when  43°  of  Reaumur  or  74°  of  Fahrenheit  were  repeatedly  known. 
I  will  also  add  my  testimony  from  experience  to  the  extent  of  42°. 
I  have  also  seen  the  minute-book  of  a  gentleman  at  Yakutsk,  where 
47°  of  Reaumur  were  registered,  equal  to  84°  of  Fahrenheit.  There 
can  indeed  be  but  little  doubt  that  the  local  situation  of  the  Koly- 
ma, bordering  on  the  latitude  of  70°,  and  almost  the  most  easterly 
part  of  the  continent  of  Asia,  is  a  colder  one  than  Melville  Island  or 
the  centre  of  the  American  Polar  coast.  Okotsk,  Idgiga,  Yakutsk, 
Tomsk,  and  Tobolsk,  are  considered  equally  cold  and  exposed  as 
the  mouths  of  the  Lena,  Yana,  or  Kolyma.  Even  Irkutsk,  about 
the  latitude  of  London,  has  yearly  a  frost  of  40°  of  Reaumur,  or 
58°  below  the  zero  of  Fahrenheit.  However,  I  soon  had  reason  to 
consider  the  coldest  day  as  the  finest,  because  it  was  then  sure  to 
be  calm,  and  afford  every  excitement  to  exercise  and  cheerfulness. 

The  occupation  of  the  people  of  this  part  of  the  world  natur- 
ally depends  upon  the  season.  Laying  in  wood  for  fire,  hunting, 
and  trading  are  the  winter  occupations,  while  fishing  and  fowling 
are  almost  the  exclusive  employment  in  spring  and  autumn  ;  sum- 
mer is  generally  the  building  time,  the  wood  for  which  is  generally 
floated  down  the  Kolyma  from  Sredne  Kolymsk.  The  women  em- 
broider gloves,  caps,  boots,  shoes,  and  various  things  in  a  neat 
manner.  Farther  on  to  the  southward  they  also  attend  to  the 
breeding  of  cattle.  Fishing,  however,  may  be  termed  the  grand 
concern,  employing,  as  it  does,  alike  men,  women,  children  and 
dogs. 

Formerly  this  part  of  the  country  was  highly  productive  in  furs, 
the  Emperor  receiving  a  tenth  of  each  sort,  which  has  at  times 
amounted  to  as  many  as  five  thousand  sables,  but  nowadays  less 
than  so  many  hundreds.  The  shores  of  the  Icy  Sea  are  still  much 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  OF    AMERICA.  315 

frequented  by  the  white,  blue,  and  red  fox,  and  near  the  woods 
valuable  sables  are  still  to  be  met  with.  In  the  rivers  the  vidra, 
or  river-otter,  is  in  much  estimation.  Upon  the  whole,  however, 
it  appears  that  the  inhabitants  look  to  the  Tchuktchi  for  their 
winter  clothing  and  most  valuable  fur  trade.  The  animals  of  the 
chase  seem  to  have  been  forced  from  the  central  to  the  extreme 
parts  of  Siberia,  and  thus  the  elk,  reindeer,  and  argali,  or  wild 
sheep,  are  rarely  met  with  in  the  commissariat.  There  are  now 
more  within  reach  of  the  few  Yukagiri  descendants  who  line  the 
banks  of  the  two  Aniuys*  and  chase  these  animals  beyond  the 
frontiers.  Game  of  the  feathered  kind  is,  nevertheless,  highly 
abundant,  such  as  swan,  geese,  ducks,  woodcocks,  bustards,  and 
partridges. 

Baron  Wrangel  and  his  party  leaving  us  on  the  27th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1721,  I  attended  him  ten  miles  down  the  river,  when  we 
returned.  The  baron  was  escorted  by  twenty  narts  and  two  hun- 
dred dogs.  Each  nart  carried  about  one  thousand  pounds  weight, 
but  in  consequence  of  the  early  part  of  the  winter  having  been 
employed  in  transporting  provisions  to  the  Great  Baranov  Cape, 
to  the  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  Kolyma,  they  will  be  enabled  to 
proceed  fully  laden  from  that  spot,  as  well  round  the  northeast 
cape  of  Asia  as  to  the  northward,  in  search  of  strange  lands ;  they 
will  also  return  to  Cape  Baranov  to  be  again  supplied  with  food, 
to  enable  them  to  regain  this  place — Nishney  Kolymsk. 

On  the  4th  of  March  I  left  the  Kolyma  in  company  with  Mr. 
Matiushkin,  midshipman,  and  a  few  merchants  whose  narts  were 
loaded  with  tobacco  and  iron  utensils.  The  weather  was  fine,  there 
being  but  25°  of  Reaumur  of  frost,  yet  we  had  not  gone  more  than 
fifteen  miles  before  we  were  obliged  to  halt  on  the  banks  of  a  lake, 
being  unable  to  make  out  the  path  from  the  depth  and  drift  of  the 
snow.  Our  route  lay  on  the  Aniuy,  having  left  to  the  north  the 
highlands  which  defend  the  town  of  Nishney  Kolymsk.  I  passed 
the  night  very  tolerably  in  the  snow.  My  friend  was  repeatedly 
obliged  to  exercise  himself  during  the  night,  for  we  were  so  unfor- 
tunately situated  that  no  fire  could  have  been  kept  in,  even  had 
there  been  fuel.  The  following  day  we  passed  through  a  thick 
forest  of  pines,  in  the  greatest  danger  of  broken  heads,  going  with 
a  velocity  almost  incredible,  and  at  every  descent  of  a  hill  dashing 
up  against  the  trees.  Thirteen  dogs  were  provided  for  me.  We 
made  thirty-five  miles  in  this  manner,  and  reached  the  Little  Aniuy, 
a  considerable,  rapid,  and  dangerous  river.  A  charity  yourt  re- 

*  The  lowest  tributaries  of  the  Kolyma. 


316  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXI. 

ceived  us  for  the  night,  and  we  fared  very  well.  The  lowlands 
which  extend  from  the  Kolyma  to  the  eastward  being  now  passed, 
we  entered  upon  a  more  elevated  country,  and  were  cheered  with 
meeting  and  overtaking  a  great  number  of  sledges,  whose  owners  ex- 
hibited the  same  smiling  faces,  the  result,  no  doubt,  of  as  sanguine 
hopes  as  those  of  the  great  merchants  of  London  and  Amsterdam 
on  the  eve  or  expectation  of  a  great  fair.  The  river,  which  has  many 
islands  in  it.  winds  a  great  deal,  and  exhibits  some  fine  scenery. 

The  descendants  of  the  Yukagiri  inhabit  the  banks  of  the  two 
rivers  Aniuy,  and  serve  as  a  neutral  nation  between  the  Russians 
and  the  Tchukchi.  They  were  formerly  a  formidable  and  warlike 
people.  They  are  now  all  but  extinct  as  a  pure  race.  They  are, 
in  fact,  descendants  of  Russians  who  have  intermarried  with 
them.  They  are  certainly  the  finest  race  of  people  I  have  seen  in 
Siberia;  the  men  well  proportioned,  with  open  and  manly  coun- 
tenances ;  the  women  are  extremely  beautiful.  What  their  origin 
was  it  is  now  difficult  to  say,  although  they  were,  doubtless,  of 
Asiatic  origin,  their  features  partaking  of  the  Tartar  aspect,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  enmity  to  the  Tchukchi,  while  they  have  a  great 
friendship  for  the  Yakuti,  or  Tongousi. 

The  third  day  we  reached  an  inhabited  yourt  where  many  of 
the  merchants  awaited  us,  as  they  could  not  go  to  the  fair  before 
a  certain  time.  The  wood  on  the  Aniuy  is  of  considerable  growth 
for  so  northern  a  situation,  but  the  root  has  seldom  more  than 
twenty  inches  depth. 

On  the  8th  of  March  we  reached  the  fortress,  the  river  bor- 
dered with  the  same  elevated  slate  lands  on  the  right  and  low  flat 
on  the  left  bank.  At  seven  miles  on  this  side  the  fortress  the 
scenery  begins  to  improve,  and  the  fortress  itself  may  be  said  to 
be  a  most  romantic  spot.  It  is  distant  from  the  Kolyma  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles.  There  are  twenty  yourts,  about  two  hun- 
dred people,  and  a  large  wooden  building,  fit  for  anything  but  de- 
fense. The  whole  stands  upon  an  island  surrounded  by  elevated 
and  well-wooded  hills.  There  is  very  little  grass,  but  much  moss. 
The  view  of  the  river  is  exceedingly  picturesque,  and  the  fortress 
is  decidedly  the  most  favorable  place  to  reside  in  I  have  seen  from 
Yakutsk,  a  distance  of  at  least  two  thousand  miles. 

The  inhabitants  on  the  banks  of  the  river  are  not  numerous, 
and  subsist  very  scantily  by  hunting,  there  being  few  fish  in  the 
river.  Elk,  reindeer,  and  argali  are  what  the  people  most  depend 
upon.  Formerly  they  were  abundant,  but  are  now  much  reduced, 
owing  to  the  peopling  of  the  country  by  the  Russians,  who  hunt 
rather  to  exterminate  the  breed  than  to  procure  subsistence. 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  OF    AMERICA.  317 

Having  settled  ourselves  in  a  small  Yukagir  yourt,  Mr.  Ma- 
iiushkin  and  I  received  a  visit  from  one  of  the  Tchuktchi,  a  most 
empty-countenanced  and  wild-looking  savage.  He  entered  the 
room  where  we  were,  tumbled  himself  down  on  a  stool,  smoked 
his  pipe,  and  then  quitted  the  room  without  once  looking  at  or 
taking  the  least  notice  either  of  us  or  anything  about  us. 

I  next  day  visited  their  camp,  distant  about  two  miles  and  a 
half.  It  consisted  of  three  large  and  three  small  tents.  The 
former  contained  the  bulk  of  the  Tchukchi  people,  and  the 
latter  were  appropriated  to  the  chiefs  and  more  considerable 
people.  The  large  tents  were  disgustingly  dirty  and  offen- 
sive, exhibiting  every  species  of  grossness  and  indelicacy,  but  the 
smaller  were,  on  the  contrary,  very  neat,  clean  and  warm,  although 
without  a  fire  in  thirty-five  degrees  of  frost.  Indeed,  they  were 
to  me  almost  suffocating,  being  only  eight  feet  long,  five  broad, 
and  about  three  feet  high,  and  contained  three  or  four  people 
huddled  together  in  one  bed,  which  was  made  of  reindeer-skins, 
and  the  coverings  lined  with  white  foxes.  The  small  tents  are 
made  also  of  the  old  and  hard  skins,  doubled,  so  that  the  hair  is 
both  on  the  inside  and  the  out.  A  large  lamp  with  whale-oil,  or 
fat,  which  serves  them  for  a  light,  communicates  also  considerable 
warmth.  On  entering  one  of  these  small  dwellings  I  found  the  chief 
and  his  wife  perfectly  naked,  as  was  also  a  little  girl,  their  daugh- 
ter, of  about  nine  years  old  ;  nor  did  they  seem  to  regard  our  pres- 
ence, but  ordered  the  daughter  to  proceed  and  prepare  some  rein- 
deer-meat for  us,  which  she  did  in  that  state  of  nudity  by  a  fire 
close  to  the  tent.  Having  informed  myself  of  the  savage  state  in 
which  they  lived,  I  returned  to  the  fortress. 

On  our  return  to  the  fortress  the  fair  was  formally  commenced 
by  a  harangue  of  the  commissaries,  declaring  the  terms,  the  tax, 
and  the  penalties.  The  fair  was  held  upon  the  river  Aniuy,  oppo- 
site the  fortress.  Early  in  the  morning  the  Tchuktchi  arrive  at 
the  place  of  barter,  and,  forming  a  semicircle  towards  the  fortress, 
the  extremes  of  which  reach  to  the  edge  of  the  ice,  depose  their 
furs  upon  their  narts,  the  owners  constantly  remaining  with 
them.  In  the  meantime  the  Russians  place  their  bags  and  bales 
of  tobacco  in  the  centre  of  the  semicircle,  and  then  begin  to  pa- 
rade and  visit  the  Tchukchi,  inquiring  the  prices,  etc.,  by  means 
of  an  interpreter.  The  work  entirely  falls  upon  the  Russian,  who 
drags  behind  him  for  many  hours  two  hundred  weight  of  tobacco 
before  he  can  induce  the  Tchukchi  to  barter. 

It  is  ludicrous  to  stand  upon  the  banks  of  the  river  and  wait  the 
appointed  signal  for  commencing  barter  each  morning.  While 


318  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.   XXXI. 

the  Tchukchi  are  quietly  sitting  on  their  narts,  with  their  sleeves 
drawn  back  and  their  arms  thrust  into  their  bosoms,  to  keep  them 
warm,  the  Russians,  on  the  contrary,  start  pell-mell ;  pots,  pans, 
kettles,  knives,  swords,  hatchets,  scissors,  needles,  etc.,  are  rattling 
in  every  direction  ;  priests,  officers,  Cossacks  and  merchants,  men, 
women  and  children,  alike  fantastically  dressed,  with  articles  of 
traffic,  of  which  tobacco  constituted  the  chief.  A  few  bells,  pipes 
and  corals  also  serve  to  grace  the  dresses  of  the  more  wealthy  and 
whimsical  pedlers. 

The  fair  lasted  seven  days,  which  is  three  more  than  usual.  At 
length  finished,  I  prepared  to  depart  for  Nishney  Kolymsk  with 
many  thanks  to  my  venerable  Yukagir  host  for  all  his  kindness. 
I  passed  the  time  very  agreeably  at  his  house.  He  was  a  very 
good  chess-player,  and  was  fond  of  the  game.  His  manner  of 
playing  added  another  instance  to  many  I  have  witnessed  that 
there  is  in  various  parts  of  the  world  little  or  no  difference  any- 
where in  the  moving  of  the  pieces.  I  have  played  the  game  with 
Yakuti,  Tongousi,  and  Yukagir.  but  the  Tchukche  laughed  at  me 
for  such  a  childish  employment  of  my  time.  I  may  remark,  as  a 
circumstance  relative  to  the  game  of  chess,  and  which  has  repeat- 
edly surprised  me,  that  wherever  a  people  recognize  and  play  it 
they  are  infallibly  Asiatics.  Neither  the-  Tchukchi  nor  the  Ko- 
riaks  understand  anything  of  it,  but  all  the  Kamtchatdales  and 
other  Asiatics  are  familiar  with  it. 

The  features  of  the  Yukagiri  lead  me  to  suppose  them  Tartars, 
and  not  a  race  very  distinct  from  the  Yakuti.  They  are,  however, 
almost  Russified  by  intermarriage,  and  the  question  of  their  ori- 
gin is  become  difficult.  There  were  at  the  fair  two  or  three 
of  the  Chuanse  or  Chodynse,  a  tributary  nation  inhabiting  the 
country  between  the  two  Aniuys  and  the  Anadyr.  Their  features 
are  also  Asiatic. 

For  the  articles  which  were  sold  by  the  Russians  the  Tchukche 
brought  four  or  five  hundred  sea-horse  teeth,  a  few  bear-skins, 
reindeer  dresses,  and  white  foxes,  and  these,  with  some  frozen 
reindeer-meat,  made  the  whole  productions  of  their  own  country. 
The  other  articles  of  fur  came  from  a  nation  on  the  American  con- 
tinent called  the  Kargaules,  two  of  whom  were  at  the  fair.  They 
bear  more  nearly  the  features  of  the  Tchukche  than  those  of  the 
hideous-mouthed  inhabitants  of  Behring  Strait,  although  with  a 
browner  or  more  dirty  color.  The  furs  brought  and  sent  by  them 
consist  of  many  thousands  of  black,  brown,  blue,  red  and  white 
foxes,  marten  and  marten  parks,*  some  beaver,  river  otter,  bear, 

*  Somewhat  like  a  carter's  frock. 


CHAP.   XXXI.]  OF    AMERICA.  319 

wolf,  sea-dog,  and  sea-horse  skins  ;  a  few  articles  of  warm  clothing, 
and  some  ornaments  carved  out  of  .sea-horse  teeth,  representing 
the  animals  common  among  them. 

There  were  this  year  (1821)  at  the  fair,  which  is  termed  a  good 
one,  two  hundred  and  fifty  narts,  five  hundred  reindeer,  with 
fifty-eight  men,  sixty  women,  and  fifty-six  children.  Those  (rein- 
deer) which  come  to  the  fair  return  only  to  the  river  Tchaon, 
where  they  are  exchanged  for  those  which  belong  to  and  which 
had  come  from  the  Bay  of  St.  Lawrence.  Seventy-five  and  ninety 
days  are  required  for  them  to  perform  the  journey,  which  is  about 
eight  hundred  versts,  or  five  hundred  miles. 

There  were  three  chiefs  at  the  fair ;  first,  Zebraskka  (almost  Ne- 
braska), who  commands  the  tribes  inhabiting  the  banks  of  the 
Tchaon,  Packla,  and  Kvata  rivers,  as  well  as  the  country  towards 
Shelatskoi  Noss;  second,  Valetka,  chief  of  the  Belo  Morsky 
Tchukchi,  which  tribe  inhabits  the  eastern  seacoast,  from  Cape 
North  to  the  Bay  of  Klasheui ;  third,  Kocharga,  who  commands 
the  Tchukskoi  Noss,  or  East  Cape  tribe,  who  inhabit  the  Noss  and 
the  country  from  thence  to  the  Bay  of  St.  Lawrence.  The  first 
are  wanderers,  and  live  by  their  reindeer,  which  are  employed  for 
burden  between  the  river  Tchaon  and  the  fair,  and  in  the  trade  of 
sea-horse  teeth.  The  second  subsist  almost  entirely  by  fishing  and 
hunting,  added  to  a  small  tribute  or  toll  of  tobacco,  which  is  paid 
by  their  southern  neighbors  for  a  free  passage  along  their  coast  ;* 
they  have  no  reindeer.  The  third  tribe  subsists  by  traffic  and  the 
breeding  of  reindeer,  of  which  they  have  considerable  herds,  and 
are  employed  from  the  Bay  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  banks  of  the 
Tchaon.  There  is  also  a  fourth  chief,  who  commands  the  Tchuk- 
chi of  Anadyr  Noss,  a  tribe  who  inhabit  the  country  and  banks 
of  the  Anadyr,  and  also  subsist  by  traffic  and  the  breeding  of 
reindeer.  These  chiefs  live  equally  distant  from  each  other,  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred  miles,  and  carry  on  a  sort 
of  intercourse  by  means  of  the  eastern  coast  Tchukchi,  who  are 
provided  with  baidares.^ 

The  Tchukskoi  Noss  race  are  the  most  numerous ;  those  of  the 
eastern  coast  the  most  warlike  and  hardy  ;  the  Tchaon,  or  Shelat- 
skoi, are  the  most  friendly,  and  those  on  the  Anadyr  are  the  richest. 
Their  whole  number  cannot  exceed  four  or  five  thousand.  The 
Kargaoulas  are  represented  by  them  as  far  more  numerous,  but 
the  Tchukchi  cannot  count  past  a  hundred,  or  ten  tens;  that  is, 

*  This  kind  of  toll  for  free  passage  along  a  coast  or  river  or  through  a  strait 
is  probably  the  oldest. 

t  Baidares,  a  kind  of  Russian   boat  used  on  expeditions. 


320  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.   XXXI. 

their  fingers  ten  times  over.  Each  tribe  has  a  different  dialect  of 
the  same  language,  and  all  understand  one  another,  though  the 
dialects  are  extremely  difficult  to  articulate. 

In  the  conversations  I  had  with  the  toions,  or  chiefs  (the  same 
word  is  used  in  America,  and  in  the  same  sense),  I  understood 
them  to  have  no  knowledge  nor  tradition  of  any  land  north  of 
theirs;  that  the  sea  is  for  ten  months  so  frozen  that  nothing  but 
mountains  of  ice  are  visible,  and  that  during  the  months  of  August 
and  September  the  ice  breaks  up,  but  not  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
admit  a  passage  for  vessels.  They  told  me  also  that  large  herds  of 
reindeer  roam  from  cape  to  cape,  but  do  not  come  from  the  north 
beyond  the  sea.  To  the  west  of  Shelatskoi  Noss,  termed  by  them 
Errie  (a  word  also  of  the  same  import  as  in  America,  signifying  a 
great  sea  or  lake),*  they  say  there  is  a  large  and  very  deep  bay, 
into  which  the  Packla  and  Tchaon  discharge  their  waters,  and  in 
this  bay  two  islands,  the  one  called  Ayon,  small,  and  near  the 
Noss,  abounding  in  sea-horse  teeth ;  the  other,  Illerie,  large,  and 
producing  fine  moss  for  the  reindeer.  The  latter  has  some  few 
residents,  both  in  winter  and  summer ;  in  the  former  season  catch- 
ing and  killing  wild  reindeer  for  the  fair,  in  the  latter  feeding 
the  tame  reindeer.  I  was  also  told  that  halfway  across  the  south 
side  of  the  bay  there  is  a  high  mountain  of  rock,  named  since  by 
Baron  Wrangel  Cape  Matiushkin — that  from  their  habitation  on 
the  Tchaon  and  Packla  rivers  to  Shelatskoi  Noss  it  is  only  one 
day's  journey  with  reindeer.  Shelatskoi  Noss  does  not,  by  their 
report,  run  far  into  the  sea,  but  is  elevated,  and  has  a  narrow  pas- 
sage between  it  and  their  country — in  truth  an  isthmus,  which 
forms  a  small  bay,  without  islands,  to  the  east  of  the  Noss.  The 
Noss  is  formed  by  the  Tchaon  and  Packla  Rivers  on  the  west,  and 
the  Kvata  and  Ekakta  on  the  east ;  and  the  Tchaon  bay  by  Shelats- 
koi Noss  and  the  island  Illerie,  which  latter  will,  of  course,  be 
understood  as  the  island  of  Sobedei.  The  Pojitcha  is  represented 
as  not  the  same  with  the  Anadyr,  but  a  small  yet  rapid  stream, 
which  from  the  east  enters  the  Tchaon  ;  and,  lastly,  that  the  whole 
of  their  country  is  so  mountainous  and  barren,  and  so  deep  in 
snow,  that  laden  reindeer  cannot  come  straight  from  the  Bay  of 
St.  Lawrence,  but  are  obliged  to  coast  along  the  valleys  on  the 
shore  until  they  reach  the  Packla,  when  their  route  changes  from 
northwest  to  southwest. 

They  have  no  knowledge  nor  tradition  of  any  nation  called  the 
Skellagers,  but  they  recognize  the  word  Kopai,  as  applicable  to 

*  May  not  Erie  (lake)  have  signified  a  great  lake,  or  people  living  on  a  great 
lake,  instead  of  Cat,  or  might  it  not  have  signified  either? 


CHAP.  XXXI.]  OF   AMERICA.  321 

the  name  of  a  person,  in  their  language.  They  know  nothing, 
either,  of  their  origin  or  first  settlement  in  the  country,  nor  of  the 
Tartar  nations  subject  to  Russia,  nor  do  they  understand  any  Tar- 
tar word.  Their  language  bears  no  affinity  to  the  Asiatic,  though 
it  is  understood  by  the  Koriaks.  The  features  of  the  Tchukchi, 
their  manners  and  customs,  pronounce  them  of  American  origin, 
of  which  the  shaving  of  their  heads,  puncturing  of  their  bodies, 
wearing  large  ear-rings,  their  independent  and  swaggering  way  of 
walking,  their  dress  and  superstitious  ideas,  are  also  evident  proofs  ; 
nor  is  it  less  than  probable  that  the  Esquimaux  and  other  tribes 
of  Arctic  Americans  may  have  descended  from  them,  for  several 
words  of  their  language  are  alike,  and  their  dress  perfectly  similar. 
That  New  Siberia  has  been  inhabited  there  is  not  a  doubt,  many 
huts,  or  yourts,  still  existing,  and  there  are  traditions  in  Siberia 
of  tribes  having  been  compelled,  from  persecution,  the  smallpox,  as 
well  as  from  disease,  to  quit  their  lands  for  those  beyond  the  seas. 

The  whole  of  them  are  ingenious,  cunning,  industrious,  and  ex- 
cellent mechanics.  They  have  no  religion,  but  a  sort  of  regard  for 
some  sorcerers  or  people  held  by  them  in  veneration.  They  are 
allowed  to  retain  five  wives,  whom  they  may  put  to  death  upon 
discovery  of  any  criminal  intercourse,  holding  also  the  power  of 
compelling  them  to  such  criminal  intercourse — an  act  by  no  means 
unfrequent  when  the  husband  is  in  want  of  an  heir  or  son.* 

They  drink  tea,  are  exceedingly  fond  of  sugar.  Tobacco  is  their 
great  commodity,  which  they  eat,  chew,  smoke,  and  snuff  at  the 
same  time.  I  have  seen  boys  and  girls  of  nine  or  ten  years  of  age 
put  a  large  leaf  of  tobacco  in  their  mouths  without  permitting  any 
saliva  to  escape;  nor  will  they  put  aside  the  tobacco  should  meat 
be  offered  them,  but  continue  consuming  both  together,  f 

My  return  to  KolymaJ  occupied  me  only  two  days.  I  was  most 
happy  to  meet  with  the  Baron  Wrangel,  who  had  returned  from 
his  expedition  round  Shelatskoi  Noss.  I  received  from  him  the 
following  account,§  which  proves  that  the  information  I  had  de- 
rived from  the  Tchukchi  was  perfectly  correct.] | 

*  The  greatest  compliment  an  early  Indian  could  pay  a  stranger  was  to  present 
him,  temporarily,  one  of  his  wives.  Intercourse  with  a  stranger,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, was  not  considered  criminal,  but  was,  without  the  husband's  consent. 

f  The  prevalent  use  of  tobacco  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  North  America 
is  evidenced  by  the  pipes  so  frequently  found  in  ancient  mounds. 

|  <:  Kolyma,"  written  Colima,  gives  the  name  of  a  province  in  Mexico. 

$  I  do  not  insert  the  account,  but  merely  the  above  statement  of  Cochrane,  to 
confirm  the  truth  of  what  he  has  stated.  Besides,  in  the  account  of  the  voyage  of 
the  Vega  will  be  found  a  description  of  the  coast  explored  by  Baron  Wrangel. 

||  "  Narrative  of  a  Pedestrian  Journey  through  Russia  and  Siberian  Tartary," 
etc.,  by  Capt.  John  Dundas  Cochrane,  K.  N. 

21 


322  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXXII. 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

Voyage  of  the  Vega — The  Northern  Coast  of  Asia — The  Chiikche — The  North- 
ernmost Cape  of  Asia — The  Onkilon — The  Wintering  of  the  Vega — The 
Settlements  of  the  Chukche — The  Seacoast — The  Chukche  Trade  and 
Travel — Mammoth  Remains. 

ON  the  4th  of  July.  1878,  a  Swedish  naval  expedition  left  the 
harbor  of  Gothenburg,  Sweden,  to  make  the  passage  from  the  At- 
lantic to  the  Pacific  Ocean  around  the  north  coast  of  Asia.  On  the 
19th  of  August  two  of  the  vessels,  the  steamers  Vega  and  Lena, 
anchored  in  a  bay  formed  in  Cape  Chelyuskin,  the  most  northerly 
cape  of  Asia,  and  thus  the  Swedes  reached  the  goal  which  for 
centuries  had  been  the  object  of  unsuccessful  struggles. 

According  to  the  map  accompanying  the  account  of  the  Vega's 
voyage,  the  latitude  of  Cape  Chelyuskin  is  about  77°  45',  and  there- 
fore more  than  eleven  degrees  farther  north  than  Behring  Strait, 
which  is  intersected  by  the  66th°.  Cape  Baranov  was  passed  on 
the  night  before  the  5th  of  September,  the  mouth  of  Chaun  Bay 
on  the  night  before  the  6th  of  September,  and  Cape  Chelagskoi 
was  reached  on  the  6th  at  4  o'clock  p.  M.  This  cape  is  four  degrees 
farther  north  than  Behring  Strait. 

The  account  says  :  "  In  the  whole  stretch  from  Yugor  Schar  to 
Cape  Chelagskoi  we  had  seen  neither  men  nor  human  habitations, 
if  I  except  the  old  uninhabited  hut  between  Cape  Chelyuskin  and 
Chatonga.  But  on  the  6th  of  September,  when  we  were  a  little 
way  off  Cape  Chelagskoi,  two  boats  were  sighted.  The  boats  were 
of  skin,  built  in  the  same  way  as  the  '  umiaks,'  or  woman-boats, 
of  the  Eskimo.  They  were  fully  laden  with  laughing  and  chatter- 
ing natives,  men,  women,  and  children. 

The  north  coast  of  Siberia  is  now,  with  the  exception  of  its 
westernmost  and  easternmost  parts,  a  desert.  In  the  west  there 
projects  between  the  mouth  of  the  Obi  and  the  southern  part  of 
the  Kara  Sea  the  peninsula  of  Zalmal,  which,  by  its  remote  posi- 
tion, its  grassy  plains,  and  rivers  abounding  in  fish,  appears  to 
form  the  earthly  paradise  of  the  Samoyed  of  the  present  day. 
Some  hundred  families  belonging  to  this  race  wander  about  here 
with  their  numerous  reindeer  herds.  During  winter  they  with- 
draw to  the  interior  of  the  country,  or  southwards,  and  the  coast 
is  said  then  to  be  uninhabited.  This  is  the  case  both  summer  and 
winter,  not  only  with  Beli  Ostrov  and  the  farthest  portion  of  the 
peninsula  between  the  Obi  and  the  Yenisej  (Mattesal),  but  also 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  323 

with  the  long  stretch  of  coast  between  the  mouth  of  the  Yenisej 
and  Chaun  Bay.  During  the  voyage  of  the  Vega,  in  1878,  we  did 
not  see  a  single  native.  No  trace  of  man  could  be  discovered  at 
the  places  where  we  landed,  and  though  for  a  long  time  we  sailed 
quite  near  land,  we  saw  from  the  sea  only  a  single  house  on  the 
shore,  the  wooden  hut  on  the  east  side  of  Chelyuskin  peninsula. 
Russian  simoves  and  native  encampments  are  indeed  still  found  on 
the  rivers  some  distance  from  their  mouths,  but  the  former  coast 
population  has  withdrawn  to  the  interior  of  the  country  or  died 
out,  and  the  north  coast  of  Asia  first  begins  to  be  inhabited  at 
Chaun  Bay. 

The  natives  in  the  boats  indicated  by  their  cries  and  gesticula- 
tions that  they  wished  to  come  on  board.  The  engine  was 
stopped,  the  boats  lay  to,  and  a  large  number  of  skin-clad,  bare- 
headed beings  climbed  up  over  the  gunwale  in  a  way  that  clearly 
indicated  that  they  had  seen  vessels  before.  A  lively  talk  began, 
but  we  soon  became  aware  that  none  of  the  crew  of  the  boats  or 
the  vessel  knew  any  language  common  to  both,  but  signs  were 
employed  as  far  as  possible.  It  was  remarkable  that  none  of  them 
could  speak  a  single  word  of  Russian,  while  a  boy  could  count 
tolerably  well  up  to  ten  in  English,  which  shows  that  the  natives 
here  came  in  closer  contact  with  the  American  whalers  than  with 
Russian  traders.  They  acknowledged  the  name  chukch  or  chautchee. 

Many  of  them  were  tall,  well-grown  men.  They  were  clothed 
in  close-fitting  skin  trousers  and  "  pesks,"  or  reindeer-skin.  The 
head  was  bare,  the  hair  always  clipped  short,  with  the  exception 
of  a  small  fringe  in  front,  where  the  hair  had  a  length  of  four  cen- 
timetres and  was  combed  down  over  the  brow.  Some  had  a  cap 
of  a  sort  used  by  the  Russians  at  Chabarova,  stuck  into  a  belt  be- 
hind, but  they  appeared  to  consider  the  weather  still  too  warm  for 
the  use  of  this  head-covering.  The  hair  of  most  of  them  was 
bluish-black  and  exceedingly  thick.  The  women  were  tattooed 
with  black  and  bluish-black  lines  on  the  brow  and  nose,  a  num- 
ber of  similar  lines  on  the  chin,  and,  finally,  some  embellishments 
on  the  cheeks.  The  type  of  the  face  did  not  strike  one  as  so  un- 
pleasant as  that  of  the  Samoyads  or  Eskimo.  Some  of  the  young 
girls  were  even  not  absolutely  ugly.  In  comparison  with  the  Sa- 
moyads they  were  even  rather  cleanly,  and  had  a  beautiful,  almost 
reddish-white,  complexion.  Two  of  the  men  were  quite  fair. 
Probably  they  were  descendants  of  Russians,  who,  for  some  reason 
or  other,  as  prisoners  of  war  or  fugitives,  had  come  to  live  among 
the  Chukches,  and  had  been  nationalized  by  them. 

In  a  little  while  we  continued  our  voyage,  after  the  Chukches 


324  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXII. 

had  returned  to  their  boats,  evidently  well  pleased  with  the  gifts 
they  had  received. 

On  the  7th  of  September  we  steamed  the  whole  day  along  the 
coast  in  a  pretty  open  ice.  At  night  we  lay  to  at  a  floe.  In  the 
morning  we  found  ourselves  so  surrounded  by  ice  and  fogs  that, 
after  several  unsuccessful  attempts  to  advance,  we  were  compelled 
to  lie  to.  When  the  fog  lifted  so  much  that  the  vessel  could  be 
seen  from  the  land  we  were  again  visited  by  a  large  number  of 
natives,  who  by  signs  invited  us  to  land  and  visit  their  tents.  As 
it  was  impossible  immediately  to  continue  the  voyage  I  accepted 
the  invitation. 

We  were  received  everywhere  in  a  friendly  way,  and  even  of- 
fered whatever  the  house  afforded.  At  the  time,  the  supply  of 
food  was  abundant.  In  one  tent  reindeer-beef  was  being  boiled 
in  a  large  cast-iron  pot.  At  another  two  recently-shot  or  slaugh- 
tered reindeer  were  being  cut  in  pieces.  At  a  third  an  old  woman 
was  employed  in  taking  out  of  the  paunch  of  the  reindeer  the 
green  spinage-like  contents  and  cramming  them  in  a  seal-skin 
bag,  evidently  to  be  preserved  for  green  food  during  winter. 
Other  seal-skin  sacks,  filled  with  train-oil,  stood  in  rows  along  the 
walls  of  the  tent.  In  all  the  tents  were  found  seals  cut  in  pieces. 
At  one  tent  lay  two  fresh  walrus  heads,  with  large,  beautiful 
tusks.  According  to  all  travellers,  they  pay  the  walrus-head  a  sort 
of  worship. 

Children  were  met  in  great  numbers,  healthy  and  thriving.  In 
the  inner  tent  the  older  children  went  nearly  naked,  and  I  saw 
them  go  out  from  it  without  shoes  or  other  covering  and  run  be- 
tween the  tents  on  the  hoar  frost-covered  ground.  The  children 
were  treated  with  marked  kindness,  and  the  older  ones  were  never 
heard  to  utter  an  angry  word. 

No  tents  were  met  with  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  vessel's  an- 
chorage, but  at  many  places  along  the  beach  there  were  seen  marks 
of  old  encampments,  sooty-soiled  stones  which  had  been  used  in 
the  erection  of  tents,  broken  household  articles,  and,  above  all,  re- 
mains of  the  bones  of  the  seal,  reindeer,  and  walrus.  Near  the 
place  where  the  tents  had  stood  were  discovered  some  small 
mounds  containing  burnt  bones.  The  cremation  had  been  so 
complete  that  only  a  human  tooth  could  be  found.  After  crema- 
tion the  remains  of  the  bones  and  the  ashes  had  been  collected  in 
an  excavation  and  covered  first  with  turf  and  then  with  small 
stones.  The  encampment  struck  me  as  having  been  abandoned 
only  a  few  years  ago,  and  even  the  collection  of  bones  did  not  ap- 
pear to  me  to  be  old.  But  we  ought  to  be  very  cautious  when  we 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  325 

endeavor,  in  the  Arctic  region,  to  estimate  the  age  of  an  old  en- 
campment, because  in  judging  of  the  changes  which  the  surface 
of  the  earth  undergoes  with  them  we  are  apt  to  be  guided  by  our 
experience  from  more  southern  regions.  To  how  limited  an  ex- 
tent this  experience  may  be  utilized  in  the  high  north  is  shown  by 
Rink's  assertion  that  in  Greenland,  at  some  of  the  huts  of  the  Nor- 
wegian colonists,  which  have  been  deserted  for  centuries,  footpaths 
can  still  be  distinguished,  an  observation  to  which  I  would 
scarcely  give  credence  until  I  had  myself  seen  some  similar  at  the 
site  of  a  house  in  the  bottom  of  Jacob's  Haven  ice-fiord,  in  north- 
western Greenland,  which  had  been  abandoned  for  one  or  two 
centuries.  Here  footpaths,  as  sharply  defined  as  if  they  had 
been  trampled  yesterday,  ran  from  the  ruins  in  different  direc- 
tions. 

During  the  night  before  the  10th  of  September  the  surface  of 
the  sea  was  covered  with  a  very  thick  sheet  of  newly-frozen  ice, 
which  was  broken  up  again  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  vessel  by 
blocks  of  old  ice  drifting  about.  The  pack  itself  appeared  to 
have  scattered  a  little  ;  we  therefore  weighed  anchor  to  continue 
our  voyage. 

The  12th  of  September,  when  we  had  passed  Irkaipij,  or  Cape 
North,  a  good  way,  we  fell  in  with  so  close  ice  that  there  was  no 
possibility  of  penetrating  farther.  We  were  therefore  compelled 
to  return,  and  were  able  to  make  our  way  with  great  difficulty 
among  the  closely-packed  masses  of  drift  ice.  Here  the  vessel 
was  anchored  near  the  northernmost  spur  of  Irkaipij.  She  was 
removed  and  anchored  anew  in  a  little  bay  open  to  the  north, 
which  was  formed  by  two  rocky  points  jutting  out  from  the  main- 
land. Unfortunately  we  were  detained  here  until  the  18th  of 
September.  It  was  this  involuntary  delay  which  must  be  consid- 
ered the  main  cause  of  our  wintering.* 

Irkaipij  is  the  northernmost  promontory  in  that  part  of  Asia  seen 
by  Cook  in  1778.  It  was  therefore  called  by  him  Cape  North,  It 
is  incorrect,  for  the  northernmost  cape  of  Siberia  is  Cape  Chelyuskin. 
The  northernmost  in  the  land  east  of  the  Lena  is  Cape  Svjatoinos ; 
the  northernmost  in  the  stretch  of  coast  east  of  Chaun  Bay  is  Cape 
Chelagskoj.  Cape  North  ought  therefore  to  be  replaced  by  the 
original  name,  Irkaipij,  which  is  well  known  to  all  the  natives  be- 
tween Chaun  Bay  and  Behring  Strait. 

On  the  neck  of  land  which  connects  Irkaipij  with  the  mainland 

*  On  September  the  28th  the  Vega  was  ice-bound  at  Kolyutschin  Bay,  but 
long  after  that  there  was  still  an  open  water  on  the  coast  four  or  five  kilometers 
from  the  vessel. 


326  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXXII. 

there  was,  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  a  village  consisting  of  sixteen 
tents.  We  saw  here  also  ruins,  viz.,  the  remains  of  a  large  number 
of  house-sites  which  belonged  to  a  race  called  Onkilon,  who  for- 
merly inhabited  these  regions,  and  some  centuries  ago  were  driven 
by  the  Chukches,  according  to  tradition,  to  some  remote  islands  in 
the  Polar  Sea.  The  refuse  heaps  contained  implements  of  stone 
and  bone,  among  which  were  stone  axes,  which,  after  lying  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  in  the  earth,  were  still  fixed  to  their  handles 
of  wood  or  stone.  Even  the  thongs  with  which  the  axes  had  been 
bound  fast  to  or  wedged  into  the  handles  were  still  remaining.  The 
tusks  of  the  walrus  had,  to  the  former  inhabitants  of  the  place,  as 
to  the  Chukches  of  the  present,  yielded  a  material  used  for  spear- 
heads, bird-arrows,  fish-hooks,  ice-axes,  etc.  Walrus-tusks,  more 
or  less  worked,  were  found  in  the  excavations  in  great  abundance. 
The  bones  of  the  whale  had  also  been  employed  on  a  great  scale, 
but  we  did  not  find  any  large  pieces  of  mammoths'  tusks — an  in- 
dication that  the  race  was  not  in  any  intimate  contact  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  region  to  the  westward,  so  rich  in  remains  of 
the  mammoth. 

Remains  of  old  dwellings  were  found,  even  at  the  highest  points, 
among  the  stone  mounds  of  Irkaipij,  and  here,  perhaps,  was  the 
last  asylum  of  the  Onkilon  race.  At  many  places  on  the  moun- 
tain-slopes were  seen  large  collections  of  bones,  consisting  partly 
of  a  large  number  (at  one  place  up  to  fifty)  of  bears'  skulls  over- 
grown with  lichens,  laid  in  circles,  with  the  nose  inward ;  partly 
of  the  skulls  of  reindeer,  Polar  bear,  and  walrus,  mixed  together 
in  a  less  regular  circle,  in  the  midst  of  which  reindeer-horns  were 
found  set  up.  Along  with  the  reindeer-horns  was  found  the  coro- 
nal bone  of  an  elk,  with  portions  of  the  horns  still  attached.  No 
portions  of  human  skeletons  were  found  in  the  neighborhood. 
These  places  are  sacrificial  places  which  the  one  race  has  inherited 
from  the  other. " 

Wrangel  gives  the  following  account  of  the  tribe  which  lived 
here  in  former  times : 

"  As  is  well  known,  the  seacoast  at  Anadyr  Bay  is  inhabited  by 
a  race  of  men  who  by  their  bodily  formation,  dress,  language,  dif- 
fer manifestly  from  the  Chukches,  and  call  themselves  Onkilon — 
seafolks.  In  the  account  of  Captain  Billings'  journey  through  the 
country  of  the  Chukches  he  shows  the  near  relationship  the  lan- 
guage of  this  coast-tribe  has  to  that  of  the  Aleutians*  at  Kadyak, 

*  As  inhabiting  or  related  to  the  inhabitants  of  these  Aleutian  Islands,  and 
islanders  being  seafaring,  may  not  the  Onkilon  "sea/oik"  have  derived  their 
name  from  these  circumstances  ? 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  327 

who  are  of  the  same  primitive  stem  as  the  Greenlanders.  Tradi- 
tion relates  that  upwards,  of  two  hundred  years  ago  these  Onkilon 
occupied  the  whole  of  the  Chukche  coast  from  Cape  Chelagskoj  to 
Behring  Strait,  and,  indeed,  we  still  find  along  the  whole  of  this 
stretch  remains  of  their  earth  huts,  which  must  have  been  very 
unlike  the  present  dwellings  of  the  Chukches ;  they  have  the  form 
of  small  mounds,  one-half  sunk  in  the  ground,  and  closed  above 
with  whale-ribs,  which  are  covered  with  thick  layers  of  earth.  A 
violent  quarrel  between  Krachoj,  the  chief  of  these  North  Asiatic 
Eskimo,  and  an  errim,  or  chief,  of  the  reindeer  Chukche,  broke  out 
into  an  open  feud.  Krachoj  drew  the  shorter  straw,  and  found 
himself  compelled  to  fly  and  leave  the  country  with  his  people. 
Since  then  the  whole  coast  has  been  desolate  and  uninhabited. 

Of  the  emigration  of  these  Onkilon,  the  inhabitants  of  the  vil- 
lage Irkaipij,  where  Krachoj  appears  to  have  lived,  narrated  the 
following  story :  He  had  killed  a  Chukche  errim,  and  was  there- 
fore eagerly  pursued  by  the  son  of  the  murdered  man,  whose  pur- 
suit he  for  a  considerable  time  escaped.  Finally  Krachoj  believed 
that  he  had  found  a  secure  asylum  on  the  rock  at  Irkaipij,  where 
he  fortified  himself  behind  a  kind  of  natural  wall,  which  can  still 
be  seen.  But  the  young  Chukche  errim,  driven  by  the  desire  to 
avenge  his  father's  death,  finds  means  to  make  his  way  within  the 
fortification  and  kills  Krachoj 's  son.  Although  the  blood-revenge 
was  now  probably  complete  according  to  the  prevailing  idea, 
Krachoj  must  have  feared  a  further  pursuit  by  his  unrelenting 
enemy ;  for,  during  the  night,  he  lowers  himself  with  thongs  from 
his  lofty  asylum  nearly  overhanging  the  sea,  enters  a  boat  which 
waits  for  him  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff,  and,  in  order  to  lead  his  pur- 
suers astray,  steers  first  towards  the  east,  but  at  nightfall  turns  to 
the  west,  reaches  Schalanrov  Island,  and  there  fortifies  himself 
in  an  earth  hut,  whose  remains  we  have  seen.  Here  he  then 
collected  all  the  members  of  his  tribe,  and  fled  with  them  in  fif- 
teen '  baydars  '  to  the  land  whose  mountains  the  Chukches  assure 
themselves  they  can,  in  clear  sunshine,  see  from  Cape  Yakan. 

During  the  following  winter  a  Chukche  related  to  Krachoj  dis- 
appeared in  addition  with  his  family  and  reindeer,  and  it  is  sup- 
posed that  he,  too,  betook  himself  to  the  land  beyond  the  sea. 
With  this  another  tradition  agrees,  which  was  communicated  to 
us  by  the  inhabitants  of  Kolyutschin  Island,  for  an  old  man 
informed  me  that  during  his  grandfather's  lifetime  a  '  baydar ' 
with  seven  Chukches,  among  them  a  woman,  had  ventured  too 
far  out  to  sea.  After  they  had  long  been  driven  hither  and  thither 
by  the  wind,  they  stranded  in  a  country  unknown  to  them, 


328  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXXII. 

whose  inhabitants  struck  the  Chukches  themselves  as  coarse  and 
and  brutish.  The  shipwrecked  men  were  all  murdered ;  only  the 
woman  was  saved,  was  very  well  treated,  and  taken  round  the 
whole  country  and  shown  to  the  natives  as  something  rare  and 
remarkable.  So  she  came  at  last  to  the  Korgauts,  a  race  living 
on  the  American  coast  at  Behring  Strait,  where  she  found  means 
to  escape  to  her  own  tribe.  This  woman  told  her  countrymen 
much  about  her  travels  and  adventures.  Among  other  things  she 
said  she  had  been  in  a  great  land  which  lay  north  of  Kolyutchin 
Island,  stretched  far  to  the  east,  and  was  probably  connected  with 
America.  This  land  was  inhabited  by  several  races  of  men ;  those 
living  in  the  west  resembled  the  Chukches  in  every  respect,  but 
those  living  in  the  east  were  so  wild  and  brutish  that  they  scarcely 
deserved  to  be  called  men.  The  whole  account,  both  of  the  woman 
herself  and  of  the  narrators  of  the  tradition,  is  mixed  up  with  so 
many  improbable  adventures,  that  it  would  scarcely  be  worthy  of 
any  attention  were  it  not  remarkable  for  its  correspondence  with 
the  history  of  Krachoj." 

When  Wrangel  wrote  that,  he  did  not  believe  in  the  existence 
of  the  land  which  afterwards  obtained  the  name  of  Wrangel's 
Land.  Now  we  know  that  the  land  spoken  of  by  tradition  actually 
exists,  and  therefore  there  is  much  that  even  tells  in  favor  of  its 
extending  as  far  as  to  the  archipelago  on  the  north  coast  of 
America. 

Between  us  and  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  Chukche  village 
at  Irkaipij  there  soon  arose  very  friendly  relations.  Here,  as  in 
all  Chukche  villages,  which  we  afterward  visited,  absolute  anarchy 
prevailed.  At  the  same  time  the  greatest  unanimity  reigned  in 
the  headless  community.  Children,  healthy  and  strong,  tenderly 
cared  for  by  the  inhabitants,  were  found  in  large  numbers.  A 
good  word  to  them  was  sufficient  to  pave  the  way  for  a  friendly 
reception  in  the  tent.  The  women  were  treated  as  the  equals  of 
the  men,  and  the  wife  was  always  consulted  by  the  husband 
when  a  more  important  bargain  than  usual  was  to  be  made ; 
many  times  it  was  carried  through  only  after  the  giver  of  advice 
had  been  bribed  with  a  handkerchief.  The  articles  which  the 
men  purchased  were  immediately  committed  to  the  wife's  keep- 
ing. One  of  the  children  had  round  his  neck  a  band  of  pearls, 
with  a  Chinese  coin  having  a  square  hole  in  the  middle,  suspended 
from  it ;  another  bore  a  perforated  American  cent  piece.  None 
knew  a  word  of  Russian ;  but  here,  too,  a  youngster  could  count 
ten  in  English.  They  also  knew  the  word  "  ship." 

On  the  evening  of  the  23d  of  September  we  lay  to  at  ground-ice 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  OP    AMERICA.  329 

in  a  pretty  large  opening  of  the  ice  field.  This  opening  closed 
during  the  night,  so  that  on  the  24th  and  25th  we  could  make  but 
very  little  progress,  but  on  the  26th  we  continued  our  course  to 
Cape  Onman.  The  natives  who  came  on  board  here  give  the  place 
that  name. 

On  the  27th  we  continued  our  course  to  Kolyutschin  Bay.  The 
mouth  of  the  bay  was  filled  with  very  closely  packed  drift-ice, 
which  had  gathered  round  the  island  situated  there,  which  was 
inhabited  by  a  large  number  of  Chukche  families.  The  vessel 
was  anchored  to  an  ice-floe  near  the  eastern  shore  of  the  fiord. 

I  made  an  excursion  on  land.  In  the  course  of  it  Johnsen  was 
sent  to  the  top  of  the  range  of  heights  which  occupied  the  inte- 
rior of  the  promontory,  in  order  to  get  a  view  of  the  state  of  the 
ice  farther  to  the  east.  I  was  wandering  about  along  with  my 
comrades  on  the  slopes  near  the  beach  when  Johnsen  came  down. 
He  informed  us  that  from  the  top  of  the  height  one  could  hear 
bustle  and  noise  and  see  fires  at  an  encampment  on  the  other  side 
of  the  headland.  I  had  a  strong  desire  to  go  thither,  in  order,  as 
I  thought,  "to  make  a  farewell  visit  to  the  Chukches,"  for  I  was 
quite  certain  that  on  some  of  the  following  days  we  should  sail 
into  the  Pacific.  None  of  us  then  had  an  idea  that  we  would  for 
the  next  ten  months  be  experiencing  a  winter  at  the  pole  of  cold, 
frozen-in  in  an  unprotected  road,  under  almost  continual  snow- 
storms, and  with  a  temperature  which  often  sank  below  the  freez- 
ing point  of  mercury. 

When  on  the  following  day,  the  28th  of  September,  1878,  we  had 
sailed  past  the  headland  which  bounds  Kolyutschin  Bay  on  the 
east,  the  channel  next  the  coast  became  suddenly  shallow.  The 
depth  was  too  small  for  the  Vega,  for  which  we  had  now  to  seek 
a  course  among  the  blocks  of  ground-ice  and  fields  of  drift-ice  in 
the  offing.  The  night's  frost  had  bound  them  so  firmly  together 
that  the  attempt  failed.  We  were  thus  compelled  to  lie  to  near 
ground-ice. 

The  fragile  ice-sheet  which  on  the  28th  of  September  bound 
together  the  ground-ice,  and  hindered  our  progress,  increased 
daily  in  strength  under  the  influence  of  severer  and  severer  cold, 
until  it  was  melted  by  the  summer  heat  of  the  following  year. 
Long  after  we  were  beset,  however,  there  was  still  open  water  on 
the  coast  four  or  five  kilometres  from  our  winter  haven. 

Assured  that  a  few  hours  of  southerly  winds  would  be  sufficient 
to  break  up  the  belt  of  ice,  scarcely  a  Swedish  mile  (6.64  English 
miles)  in  breadth  that  barred  our  way,  I  was  not  at  first  uneasy 
at  the  delay,  of  which  we  took  advantage  to  make  short  excur- 


330  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXXII. 

sions  on  land  and  holding  converse  with  the  inhabitants.  First 
when  day  after  day  passed  without  any  change,  it  became  clear 
to  me  that  we  must  make  preparation  for  wintering  just  on  the 
threshold  between  the  Arctic  and  Pacific  Oceans,  it  was  an  un- 
expected disappointment,  which  it  was  the  more  difficult  to  bear 
with  equanimity,  as  it  was  evident  that  we  would  have  avoided  it 
if  we  had  come  some  hours  earlier  to  the  eastern  side  of  the  Koly- 
utshin  Bay.  There  were  numerous  occasions  during  the  preceding 
part  of  our  voyage  in  which  these  hours  might  have  been  saved. 

The  position  of  the  vessel  was  by  no  means  very  secure,  for 
the  Vega  when  frozen  in  did  not  lie  at  any  haven,  but  was  only 
anchored  behind  ground-ice  which  had  stranded  in  a  depth  of 
nine  and  a  half  metres,  fourteen  hundred  metres  from  land,  in  a 
road  which  was  quite  open  true  N.  74°  W.  by  North  to  East.  The 
Vega  was  anchored  the  first  time  on  the  28th  of  September  at 
some  small  ice-blocks  which  had  stranded  two  hundred  metres 
nearer  the  land,  but  was  removed  the  following  day  from  that 
place  because  there  were  only  a  few  inches  of  water  under  the 
keel. 

When  the  Vega  was  beset,  the  sea  near  the  coast  was  covered 
with  newly-formed  ice  too  thin  to  bear  a  foot-passenger,  but 
thick  enough  to  prevent  the  passage  of  a  boat.  In  the  offing  lay, 
as  far  as  the  eye  could  see,  closely-packed  drift  ice,  which  was 
bound  together  so  firmly  by  the  newly-formed  ice  that  it  was  vain 
to  endeavor  to  force  a  passage.  Already  by  the  2d  of  October  it 
was  possible  to  walk  upon  the  newly-formed  ice  nearest  the  ves- 
sel, and  on  the  3d  of  October  the  Chukches  came  on  board  on 
foot. 

The  ground-ice  to  which  the  Vega  was  moored  the  29th  oi 
September,  and  under  which  she  lay  during  the  course  of  the 
winter,  was  about  forty  metres  long,  twenty-five  broad,  and  its 
highest  point  above  the  surface  of  the  water  six  metres.  It  gave 
the  vessel  good  shelter. 

The  winter  haven  was  situated  in  67°  4'  49"  north  latitude,  and 
173°  23'  2"  longitude  west  of  Greenwich,  1.4  kilometres  from  land. 
The  distance  from  the  East  Cape  was  120',  and  from  Point  Hope, 
near  Cape  Lisburn,  on  the  American  side,  ISC'. 

The  sandy  neck  of  land  which  on  the  side  next  the  vessel  di- 
vided the  lagoons  from  the  sea  was  bestrewed  with  colossal  bones 
of  the  whale  and  with  the  refuse  of  the  Chukches  who  had  lived 
and  wandered  about  there  for  centuries ;  and,  besides,  with  por- 
tions of  the  skeletons  of  the  seal  and  walrus,  with  excreta  of  men, 
dogs,  birds,  etc.  The  region  was  among  the  most  disagreeble  I 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  OF    AMERICA.  331 

have  seen  in  any  of  the  parts  inhabited  by  fishing  Lapps,  Sa- 
moyads,  Chukches,  or  Eskimo.  When  the  Vega  was  beset  there 
were  two  Chukche  villages  on  the  neighboring  beach,  of  which 
the  one  nearest  our  winter  haven  was  called  Pitlekaj.  It  con- 
sisted at  first  of  seven  tents,  which,  in  consequence  of  want  of 
food,  their  inhabitants  moved  gradually,  in  the  course  of  the  win- 
ter, to  a  region  near  Behring  Strait,  where  fish  were  more  abun- 
dant. At  removal  only  the  most  indispensable  articles  were 
taken  along,  because  there  was  an  intention  of  returning  at  that 
season  of  the  year  when  the  chase  again  becomes  more  productive. 
The  other  encampment,  Yinretlen,  lay  nearer  the  cape,  towards 
Kolyutschin  Bay,  and  reckoned  at  the  beginning  of  our  wintering, 
likewise,  seven  tents,  whose  inhabitants  appeared  in  better  circum- 
stances than  those  of  the  Pitlekaj.  They  had,  during  the  autumn, 
made  a  better  catch  and  collected  a  greater  stock.  Only  some  of 
them,  accordingly,  removed  during  winter. 

The  following  encampments  lay  at  a  somewhat  greater  distance 
from  our  winter  quarters,  but  so  near,  however,  that  we  were 
often  visited  by  their  inhabitants. 

Pedlin,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Kolyutschin  Bay,  four  tents. 

Kolyutschin,  on  the  island  of  the  same  name,  twenty -five  tents. 
This  village  was  not  visited  by  any  member  of  the  Vega  expe- 
dition. 

Riraitinop,  situated  six  kilometres  east  of  Pitlekaj,  three  tents; 
Irgunnuk,  seven  kilometers  east  of  Pitlekaj,  ten  tents,  of  which, 
however,  in  February  only  four  remained.  The  inhabitants  of 
the  others  had  for  the  winter  sought  a  better  fishing-place  farther 
eastward. 

The  number  of  the  persons  who  belong  to  each  tent  was  diffi- 
cult to  make  out,  because  the  Chukches  were  constantly  visiting 
each  other  for  the  purpose  of  gossip  and  talk  On  an  average  it 
may  perhaps  be  put  at  five  or  six  persons.  Including  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Kolyutschin  Island  there  thus  lived  about  three  hundred 
natives  in  the  neighborhood  of  our  winter  quarters. 

When  the  natives  observed  us  there  was  immediately  a  great 
commotion  among  them.  Men,  women,  children  and  dogs  were 
seen  running  up  and  down  the  beach  in  eager  confusion.  At  last 
a  boat  was  got  to  a  lane  clear  of  ice,  or  only  covered  with  a  thin 
sheet  that  ran  from  the  shore  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  vessel. 
In  this  a  large  skin-boat  was  put  out,  which  was  filled  brimful  of 
men  and  women.  They  rowed  immediately  to  the  vessel,  and  on 
reaching  it  most  of  them  climbed  without  the  least  hesitation  over 
the  gunwale  with  jests  and  laughter,  and  the  cry  anoaj,  anoaj 


332  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXII. 

(good  day,  good  day).  Our  first  meeting  with  the  inhabitants  of 
this  region,  where  we  afterwards  passed  ten  months,  was  on  both 
sides  very  hearty,  and  formed  the  starting-point  of  a  very  friendly 
relation  between  the  Chukches  and  ourselves,  which  remained  un- 
altered during  our  stay. 

On  board,  the  vessel's  tent-covered  deck  soon  became  a  veritable 
reception-room  for  the  whole  population  of  the  neighborhood. 
Dog-team  after  dog-team  stood  all  day  in  rows,  or,  more  correctly, 
lay  snowed-up  before  the  ice-built  flight  of  steps  to  the  deck  of 
the  Vega,  patiently  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  visitors  or  for  the 
pemmican  I  now  and  then  promptly  ordered  to  be  given  the 
hungry  animals.  The  report  of  the  arrival  of  the  remarkable  for- 
eigners must,  besides,  have  spread  with  great  rapidity,  for  we  soon 
had  visits  even  from  distant  settlements,  and  the  Vega  finally  be- 
came the  resting-place  at  which  every  passer-by  stopped  with  his 
dog-team  for  some  hours. 

All  who  called  on  board  were  allowed  to  go  about,  without  let 
or  hindrance,  on  our  deck,  which  was  encumbered  with  a  great 
many  things.  We  had  not,  however,  to  lament  the  loss  of  the 
merest  trifle.  Honesty  was  as  much  at  home  here  as  in  the  homes 
of  the  reindeer  Lapps.  On  the  other  hand,  they  soon  became  very 
troublesome  by  their  beggary.  Nor  did  they  fail  to  take  all  pos- 
sible advantage  of  what  they  doubtless  considered  the  great  in- 
experience of  the  Europeans.  Small  deceptions  in  this  way  were 
evidently  not  looked  upon  as  blameworthy,  but  as  meritorious. 
Sometimes,  for  instance,  they  sold  us  the  same  thing  twice.  They 
were  always  liberal  in  promises,  which  they  never  intended  to 
keep,  and  often  gave  deceptive  accounts  of  articles  which  were 
exposed  for  sale.  None  of  the  natives  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Vega's  winter  station  professed  the  Christian  religion,  none  of  them 
spoke  any  European  language,  though  one  or  two  knew  a  couple 
of  English  words,  and  a  Russian  word  of  salutation. 

On  the  20th  of  February  three  large  Chukche  sledges,  laden 
with  goods  and  drawn  by  sixteen  or  twenty  dogs,  stopped  at 
the  Vega.  They  said  they  came  from  the  eastward,  and  were 
on  their  way  to  the  market  in  the  neighborhood  of  Nischni 
Kolymsk. 

In  the  beginning  of  March  there  passed  us  a  large  number  of 
sledges  laden  with  reindeer-skins,  and  drawn  by  eight  to  ten  dogs 
each.  These  trains  were  on  a  commercial  journey  from  Irkaipij 
to  Pak,  on  Behring  Strait.  We  found  among  the  foremen  many 
of  our  acquaintances  from  the  preceding  autumn.  Conversation 
during  such  visits  became  very  lively  and  went  on  with  little  bin- 


CHAP.  XXXII.]  OP   AMERICA.  333 

drance,  since  two  of  us  were  now  somewhat  at  home  in  the 
Chukche  language. 

Sledges  of  considerable  size,  drawn  by  reindeer,  began  after  the 
middle  of  March  to  pass  the  Vega  in  pretty  large  numbers.  They 
were  laden  with  reindeer-skins  and  goods  bought  at  the  Russian 
market-places,  and  intended  for  barter  at  Behring  Strait. 

The  reindeer  Chukches  are  better  clothed  and  appear  to  be  in 
better  circumstances,  and  more  independent  than  the  coast 
Chukches,  or,  as  they  ought  to  be  called  in  correspondence  with 
the  former  name,  the  dog  Chukches.  As  every  one  owns  a  reindeer 
herd,  all  must  follow  the  nomad  mode  of  living,  but  at  the  same 
time  they  carry  on  traffic  between  the  savages  in  the  northernmost 
parts  of  America  and  the  Russian  fur-dealers  in  Siberia,  and  many 
of  them  pass  their  whole  lives  in  commercial  journeys.  The  prin- 
cipal market  is  held  annually  during  the  month  of  March,  on  an 
island  in  the  river  Little  Anjui,  two  hundred  and  fifty  versts  from 
Nischni  Kolymsk.  The  bargain  goes  on  in  accordance  with  a 
normal  price-list,  mutually  agreed  upon  by  the  Russian  merchants 
and  'the  oldest  of  the  Chukches.  At  such  markets  there  is  said  to 
be  considerable  confusion,  to  judge  by  the  spirited  description 
which  Wrangel  gives  of  it.  This  description,  however,  refers  to 
the  customs  that  prevailed  sixty  years  ago. 

Besides  the  traders,  a  large  number  of  Chukches  from  Kolyuts- 
chin  Island  and  other  villages  to  the  west  travelled  past  us  with 
empty  sledges  to  which  were  harnessed  only  a  few  dogs.  They 
returned  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  with  their  sledges  fully 
laden  with  fish,  which  they  said  they  had  caught  to  the  east- 
ward. 

On  the  19th  of  April,  at  four  o'clock  A.M.,  the  hunter  Johnsen 
and  I  started  for  a  short  excursion  eastward  along  the  coast,  with  a 
view  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  much  frequented  fishing  station,  Najts- 
kaj,  where  our  old  friends  from  Pitlekaj  had  settled.  At  six  o'clock 
A.M.  we  reached  Rirajtinap,  which  formerly  consisted  of  a  great 
many  tents,  now  had  only  one  tent,  Notti's,  and  it  was  poor  enough. 
Among  household  articles  in  the  tent  I  noticed  a  face-mask  of 
wood,  less  shapeless  than  those  which,  according  to  Whymper's 
drawings,  are  found  among  the  natives  along  the  river  Youcon,  in 
the  territory  of  Alaska;  and,  according  to  Dr.  Simpson,  among  the 
West  Eskimo,  I  learned  afterwards  that  this  mask  came  from  Pak, 
Behring  Strait,  whither  it  was  probably  carried  from  the  opposite 
American  shore. 

The  village  Irgunnuk  is  from  three  to  four  hundred  metres  from 
Rirajtonop,  and  consists  of  five  tents,  one  of  which  two  days  be- 


334  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXXII. 

fore  had  been  removed  from  Yinretlen.  The  tents  are,  as  usual, 
placed  on  earthy  eminences. 

The  coast  from  Sigunnuk  to  Najtskaj  runs  in  a  straight  line,  is 
low,  and  only  now  and  then  interrupted  by  small  earthy  emi- 
nences, which  all  bear  traces  of  old  dwellings.  Each  of  these 
heights  has  its  special  name.  At  noon  we  reached  Najtskaj. 

The  day  after  our  arrival  at  Najtskaj  we  visited  the  village 
Tjapka,  which  lies  at  a  distance  of  six  kilometres.  The  village 
contains  thirteen  tents,  some  of  which  are  more  roomy  and  better 
built  than  any  Chukche  tent  I  had  previously  seen.  We  lodged 
in  a  tent  which  belonged  to  Erere,  a  friendly  man,  whose  face  was 
always  cheerful.  His  sleeping-chamber  was  so  large  that  it  could 
hold  more  than  one  family.  We  found  the  inmates  there  com- 
pletely naked,  Erere's  wife  not  excepted. 

Erere  had  five  children.  In  all  the  tents  which  I  have  visited 
I  have  inquired  the  number  of  children.  Only  two  or  three  wives 
had  more  than  three ;  the  average  may  be  estimated  at  two. 

In  the  beginning  of  July  the  ground  became  free  of  snow,  and 
we  could  now  form  an  idea  of  how  the  region  looked  in  summer 
in  which  we  passed  the  winter.  Far  away  in  the  south  the  land 
rose  with  terrace-formed  escarpments  to  a  hill  called  by  us  Table 
Mount,  which,  indeed,  was  pretty  high,  but  did  not,  by  any  steep 
or  bold  cliffs,  yield  such  a  picturesque  landscape  border  as  is  sel- 
dom wanting  in  the  portions  of  Spitzbergen,  Greenland,  and  the 
northern  part  of  Novaya  Zemlya  which  I  had  visited ;  south  No- 
vaya  Zemlya  has,  at  least  at  most  places,  bold  picturesque  shore- 
cliffs.  If  I  except  the  rocky  promontory  of  Yinretlen,  where  a  cliff 
inhabited  by  ravens  rises  boldly  out  of  the  sea,  and  some  cliffs 
situated  farther  in  along  the  beach  of  Kolyutschin  Bay,  the  shore 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  our  wintering-station  consisted 
everywhere  only  of  a  low  beach  formed  of  coarse  sand.  Upon  this 
sand,  which  was  always  frozen,  there  ran  parallel  with  the  shore  a 
broad  bank  or  dune  fifty  to  one  hundred  metres  broad  of  fine  sand 
not  water-drenched  in  summer,  and,  accordingly,  not  bound  to- 
gether'by  ice  in  winter.  It  is  upon  this  dune  that  the  Chukches 
erect  their  tents.  Marks  of  them  are  therefore  met  with  nearly 
everywhere,  and  the  dune,  accordingly,  is  everywhere  bestrewed 
with  broken  implements  or  refuse  from  the  chase.  Indeed,  it  may 
be  said,  without  exaggeration,  that  the  whole  northeastern  coast  of  the 
Siberian  Polar  Sea  is  bordered  with  a,  belt  of  sweepings  and  refuse  of 
various  kinds. 

When,  on  the  16th  July  (1879),  the  reindeer  Chukche  Yettugin 
came  on  board,  and,  talking  of  collecting  whalebones,  in  which  we 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  335. 

had  been  engaged  some  days  before,  informed  us  that  there  was  a 
mammoth  bone  at  his  tent,  and  that  a  mammoth's  tusk  stuck  out 
at  a  place  where  the  spring  floods  had  cut  into  the  bank  of  a  river 
which  flowed  from  Table  Mount  to  Riraitinop,  I  did  not  hesitate 
to  make  an  excursion  to  the  place.  Our  absence  from  the  vessel 
was  reckoned  at  five  or  six  days.  It  was  my  intention  to  go  up 
the  river  in  a  skin-boat  belonging  to  Notti  to  the  place  where  the 
mammoth  tusk  was,  and  thence  to  proceed  on  foot  to  Yettugin's 
tent.  Yettugin  assured  us  that  the  river  was  sufficiently  deep  for 
flat-bottomed  boats.  But  when  we  had  travelled  a  little  way  into 
the  country  it  appeared  that  the  water  had  fallen  considerably 
during  the  day  Yettugin  had  passed  on  the  vessel.  So  certain, 
however,  was  I  that  the  ice-border  would  not  yet,  for  a  long  time, 
be  broken  up,  that  I,  immediately  after  my  return  from  the  excur- 
sion, which  had  been  thus  rendered  unsuccessful,  made  arrange- 
ments for  a  new  journey,  in  order,  with  other  means  of  transport, 
to  reach  the  goal. 

While  we  were  thus  employed  the  forenoon  of  the  18th  passed. 
We  sat  down  to  dinner  at  the  usual  time  without  any  suspicion 
that  the  time  of  our  release  was  now  at  hand.  During  dinner  it 
was  suddenly  observed  that  the  vessel  was  moving  slightly.  Po- 
lander  rushed  on  deck,  saw  that  the  ice  was  in  motion,  ordered 
the  boiler-fire  to  be  lighted,  the  engine  having  long  ago  been  put 
in  order  in  expectation  of  this  moment,  and  in  two  hours,  by  3.30 
p.  M.,  on  the  18th  of  July,  1879,  the  Vega,  decked  with  flags,  was 
under  steam  and  sail  again,  on  the  way  to  her  destination. 


CHAPTER   XXXIII. 

The  Division  of  Chuckchee — Their  Population — Their  Burials,  Tents,  Boats,  etc. 

THE   CHUCKCHES. 

IT  may  be  mentioned  that  Steller  and  Krascheninnikov  only 
touch  in  passing  on  the  true  Chuckches,  but,  instead,  give  very  in- 
structive and  detailed  accounts  of  the  Koryaks,  who  are  as  nearly 
allied  to  the  Chuckches  as  the  Spaniards  to  the  Portuguese,  but  yet 
differ  considerably  in  their  modes  of  life ;  and  also  that  a  part  of 
these  authors'  statements  regarding  the  Chuckches  do  not  at  all 
refer  to  that  tribe,  but  to  the  Eskimo.  It  appears,  indeed,  that 
recently,  after  the  former's,  national  enmity  had  ceased,  mixed 
races  have  arisen  among  these  tribes ;  but  it  ought  not  to  be  for- 


.336  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

gotten  that  they  differ  widely  in  origin,  although  the  Chuckches, 
as  coming  at  a  later  date  to  the  coast  of  the  Polar  Sea,  have 
adopted  almost  completely  the  hunting  implements  and  house- 
hold furniture  of  the  Eskimo,  and  the  Eskimo  again,  in  the  dis- 
tricts where  they  come  in  contact  with  the  Chuckches,  have 
adopted  various  things  from  their  language. 

Like  the  Lapps,  and  most  of  the  European  and  Asiatic  Polar 
races,  the  Chuckches  fall  into  two  divisions,  speaking  the  same 
language  and  belonging  to  the  same  race,  but  differing  consider- 
ably in  their  modes  of  life.  One  division  consists  of  reindeer 
nomads,  who  with  their  often  very  numerous  reindeer-herds  wan- 
der about  between  Behring  Straits  and  the  Indigirka  and  the 
Penschina  bays.  They  live  by  tending  reindeer  and  by  trades, 
and  consider  themselves  the  chief  part  of  the  Chuckche  tribe. 
The  other  division  of  the  race  are  the  coast  Chuckches,  who  do 
not  own  any  reindeer,  but  live  in  fixed  but  easily-movable,  and 
frequently-moved,  tents  along  the  coast  between  Chaun  Bay  and 
Behring  Straits.  But  beyond  East  Cape  there  is  found  along  the 
coast  of  Behring  Sea  another  tribe  nearly  allied  to  the  Eskimo. 
This  is  Wrangel's  Onkilon,  Lutke's  Namollo.  Now,  however, 
Chuckches  also  have  settled  at  several  points  on  the  line  of  coast, 
and  a  portion  of  the  Eskimo  have  adopted  the  language  of  the 
superior  Chuckche  race.  Thus  the  inhabitants  of  St.  Lawrence 
bay  spoke  Chuckche,  with  a  little  mixture  of  foreign  words,  and 
differed  in  their  mode  of  life  and  appearance  only  inconsiderably 
from  the  Chuckches,  whom  during  the  course  of  the  winter  we 
learned  to  know  from  nearly  all  parts  of  the  Chuckche  peninsula. 
The  same  was  the  case  of  the  natives  who  came  on  board  the 
Vega  while  we  sailed  past  East  Cape,  and  with  the  two  families 
we  visited  in  Kenyan  bay.  But  the  natives  in  the  northwest  part 
of  St.  Lawrence  Island  talk  an  Eskimo  dialect  quite  different 
from  the  Chuckche.  There  were,  however,  many  Chuckche  words 
incorporated  with  it.  At  Port  Clarence,  on  the  contrary,  there 
lived  pure  Eskimo.  Among  them  we  found  a  Chuckche  woman, 
who  informed  us  that  there  were  Chuckche  villages  also  on  the 
American  side  of  Behring  Strait,  north  of  Prince  of  Wales  Cape. 
They  cannot,  however,  be  very  numerous  or  populous,  as  they 
are  not  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the  various  English  expedi- 
tions to  those  regions. 

Lieutenant  Nordquist  collected  from  the  numerous  foremen, 
who  visited  at  the  Vega,  information  as  to  the  names  of  the  en- 
campments which  are  to  be  found, ^at  present,  on  the  coast  be- 
tween Chaun  Bay  and  Behring  Strait,  and  the  number  of  tents  at 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  0!P    AMERICA.  337 

each  village.  He  thus  ascertained  that  the  number  of  the  tents  in 
the  coast  villages  amounted  to  about  four  hundred.  The  number 
of  inhabitants  in  each  tent  may  be,  according  to  our  experience, 
averaged  at  five.  The  population  on  the  line  of  coast  in  question 
may  thus  amount  to  about  two  thousand,  at  most  to  twenty-five 
hundred  men,  women,  and  children.  The  number  of  the  reindeer 
Chuckches  appears  to  be  about  the  same.  The  whole  population  of 
Chuckch  Land  may  thus  now  amount  to  four  thousand  or  five 
thousand  persons.  The  Cossack  Popov  reckoned,  in  1711,  that 
all  the  Chuckches,  both  reindeer-owning  and  those  with  fixed 
dwellings,  numbered  two  thousand  persons.  Thus,  during  the 
last  two  centuries,  if  these  estimates  are  correct,  the  Polar  race 
has  doubled  in  numbers. 

In  regard  to  the  Chuckche  language  there  appear  to  be  no  dia- 
lects differing  very  much  from  each  other.  Whether  foreign 
words,  borrowed  from  other  Asiatic  languages,  have  been  adopted 
in  Chuckche,  we  have  not  been  able  to  make  out.  It  is  certain 
that  no  Russian  words  are  used.  The  language  strikes  me  as  ar- 
ticular and  euphonious.  It  is  nearly  allied  to  the  Koryak,  but  so 
different  from  other  both  East  Asiatic  and  American  tongues  that 
philologists  have  not  yet  succeeded  in  clearing  up  the  relationship 
of  the  Chuckches  to  other  races. 

Like  most  other  Polar  tribes,  the  Chuckches  now  do  not  belong 
to  any  unmixed  race.  This  one  is  soon  convinced  of  if  he  con- 
siders attentively  the  inhabitants  of  a  large  tent-village.  Some 
are  tall,  with  raven-black  hair,  brown  complexion,  high,  aquiline 
nose,  in  short,  with  an  exterior  that  reminds  us  of  the  description 
we  read  of  the  North  American  Indians.  Others,  again,  by  their 
dark  hair,  slight  beard,  sunk  nose,  or  rather  projecting  cheek- 
bones, and  oblique  eyes,  remind  us  distinctly  of  the  Mongolian 
race  ;  and,  finally,  we  meet  among  them  with  fair  faces,  with  feat- 
ures and  complexion  which  lead  us  to  suspect  that  they  are  de- 
scendants of  runaways  or  prisoners  of  war  or  purely  of  Russian 
origin.  The  most  common  type  is  straight,  coarse  black  hair  of 
moderate  length,  the  brow  tapering  upwards ;  the  nose  finely 
formed,  but  with  its  root  often  flattened  ;  eyes  by  no  means  small ; 
well-developed  black  eyebrows ;  projecting  cheeks,  often  swollen 
by  frost-bite ;  light,  slightly  brown  complexion,  which  in  the 
young  women  is  often  nearly  as  red  and  white  as  in  Europeans. 
The  beard  is  always  scanty.  Nearly  all  are  stout  and  well-grown. 
We  saw  no  cripples  among  them.  The  young  women  often  strike 
one  as  very  pretty,  if  one  can  rid  oneself  of  the  unpleasant  im- 
pression of  the  dirt,  which  is  never  washed  away  but  by  the  drift- 

22 


338  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

ing  snow  of  winter,  and  of  the  nauseous  train-oil  odor  which  in 
winter  they  carry  with  them  from  the  close-tented  chamber.  The 
children  nearly  always  make  a  pleasant  impression  by  their 
healthy  appearance  and  their  friendly  and  becoming  behavior. 

The  Chuckches  are  a  hardy  race,  but  exceedingly  indolent  when 
want  of  food  does  not  force  them  to  exertions.  The  men  during 
their  hunting  excursions  pass  whole  days  in  a  cold  of  30°  to  40° 
out  upon  the  ice  without  protection,  and  without  carrying  with 
them  food  or  fuel.  In  such  cases  they  slake  their  thirst  with 
snow,  and  assuage  their  hunger,  if  they  have  been  successful  in 
hunting,  with  the  blood  and  flesh  of  the  animals  they  have  killed. 
Women,  nearly  naked,  often  during  severe  cold,  leave  for  a  while 
the  inner  tent,  or  tent-chamber,  where  the  train-oil  lamp  main- 
tains a  heat  that  is  at  times  oppressive.  A  foreigner's  visit  in- 
duces the  completely  naked  children  to  half  creep  out  from  under 
the  curtain  of  reindeer-skin  which  separates  the  sleeping-chamber 
from  the  exterior  tent,  in  which,  as  it  is  not  heated,  the  tempera- 
ture is  generally  little  higher  than  that  of  the  air  outside.  In  this 
temperature  the  mothers  do  not  hesitate  to  show  their  naked  chil- 
dren, one  or  two  years  of  age,  to  visitors,  for  some  moments. 

Diseases  are,  notwithstanding,  uncommon,  with  the  exception 
that  in  autumn,  before  the  severe  cold  commences,  nearly  all  suffer 
from  a  cough  and  cold.  Very  bad  skin  eruptions  and  sores  also 
occur  so  frequently  that  a  stay  in  the  inner  tent  is  thereby  com- 
monly rendered  disgusting  to  Europeans.  Some  of  the  sores, 
however,  are  merely  frost-bites,  which  most  Chuckches  bring  on 
themselves  by  the  carelessness  with  which,  during  high  winds, 
they  expose  the  bare  neck,  breast  and  wrists  to  the  lowest  tem- 
perature. On  the  other  hand,  we  never  saw  any  one  who  had  a 
frost-bite  on  the  hands  or  feet,  a  circumstance  which  may  be  as- 
cribed to  the  serviceable  nature  of  their  shoes  and  gloves.  From 
the  beginning  of  October,  1878,  to  the  middle  of  July,  1879,  no 
death  appears  to  have  happened  at  any  of  the  encampments 
near.  During  the  same  time  the  number  of  the  inhabitants  was 
increased  by  two  or  three  births. 

It  appears  as  if  the  Chuckches  sometimes  burn  their  dead, 
sometimes  expose  them  on  the  tundra  as  food  for  beasts  of  prey, 
with  weapons,  sledges,  and  household  articles.  It  is  at  least 
certain  that  the  inhabitants  of  Pitlekaj  exclusively  bury  their 
dead  by  laying  them  out  on  the  tundra.  In  the  spring  of  1879, 
after  the  snow  was  melted,  we  had  further  opportunities  of  seeing 
a  large  number  of  bury  ing-places,  or,  more  correctly,  of  places 
where  dead  Chuckches  had  been  laid  out.  They  were  marked 


CHAP.  XXXIII.]  OP   AMERICA.  339 

by  stones  placed  in  a  peculiar  manner,  and  were  measured  and 
examined  in  detail  by  Dr.  Stuxberg,  who  gives  the  following  de- 
scription of  them  : — 

"  The  Chuckche  graves  on  the  heights  south  of  Pitlekaj  and 
Yinretlen,  which  were  examined  by  me  on  the  4th  and  7th  of 
July,  1879,  were  nearly  fifty  in  number.  Every  grave  consisted 
of  an  oval  form  of  large  lying  stones.  At  one  end  there  was  gen- 
erally a  large  stone  raised  on  its  edge,  and  from  the  opposite  end 
there  went  out  one  or  two  pieces  of  wood  lying  on  the  ground. 
The  area  within  the  stone  circle  was  sometimes  overlaid  with 
small  stones,  sometimes  free  and  overgrown  with  grass.  At  all 
the  graves,  at  a  distance  of  four  to  seven  paces  from  the  stone 
standing  on  its  edge,  on  the  longitudinal  axis  of  the  grave,  or  a 
little  to  the  side  of  it,  there  was  another  small  circle  of  stones  en- 
closing a  heap  of  reindeer-horns,  commonly  containing  also  broken 
seals'  skulls  and  other  fragments  of  bones ;  only  in  one  grave  were 
found  pieces  of  human  bones.  The  graves  were  evidently  very 
old,  for  the  bits  of  wood  at  the  ends  were  generally  much  decayed, 
and  almost  wholly  covered  with  earth,  and  the  stones  were  com- 
pletely overgrown  with  lichens  on  the  upper  side.  I  estimated 
the  age  of  these  graves  at  about  two  hundred  years. 

The  Chuckches  live,  summer  and  winter,  in  tents  of  a  peculiar 
construction,  not  used  by  any  other  race  ;  for  in  orcfer  to  afford 
protection  from  the  cold  the  tent  is  double,  the  outer  envelope 
enclosing  an  inner  tent  or  sleeping-chamber.  This  has  the  form 
of  a  parallelepiped,  about  3.5  metres  long,  2.2  broad,  and  1.8 
high.  It  is  surrounded  by  thick  warm  reindeer-skins,  and  is  fur- 
ther covered  with  a  layer  of  grass.  The  floor  consists  of  a  walrus- 
skin  stretched  over  a  foundation  of  twigs  and  straw.  At  night 
the  floor  is  covered  with  a  carpet  of  reindeer-skins,  which  is  taken 
away  during  the  day.  The  rooms  at  the  sides  of  the  inner  tent  are 
also  shut  off  by  curtains,  and  serve  as  pantries.  The  inner  tent  is 
warmed  by  three  train-oil  lamps,  which,  together  with  the  heat 
given  off  by  the  numerous  human  beings  packed  together  in  the 
tent,  raise  the  temperature  to  such  a  height  that  the  inhabitants, 
even  during  the  severest  winter  cold,  may  be  completely  naked. 
The  work  of  the  women  and  the  cooking  is  carried  on  in  winter 
in  this  tent-chamber ;  very  often  also  the  calls  of  nature  are  obeyed 
in  it.  All  this  conduces  to  make  the  atmosphere  prevailing  there 
unendurable  (to  Europeans).  There  are  also,  however,  cleanlier 
families,  in  whose  sleeping-chambers  the  air  is  not  so  disgusting. 

In  summer  they  live,  during  the  day,  and  cook  and  work  in 
the  outer  tent.  This  consists  of  seal  and  walrus-skins  sewed  to- 


340  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXIII. 

gether,  which,  however,  are  so  old,  hairless,  and  full  of  holes  that 
they  appear  to  have  been  used  for  several  generations.* 

The  entrance  consists  of  a  low  door,  which,  when  necessary, 
may  be  closed  with  a  reindeer-skin.  The  floor  of  the  outer  tent  is 
the  bare  ground.  This  is  kept  very  clean,  and  the  few  household 
articles  are  hung  up  carefully,  and  in  an  orderly  manner,  along 
the  wall  on  the  inner  and  outer  sides  of  the  tent.  Near  the  tent 
are  some  posts,  as  high  as  a  man,  driven  into  the  ground,  with 
cross-pieces,  on  which  skin-boats,  oars,  javelins,  etc.,  are  laid,  and 
from  which  fish  and  seal-nets  are  suspended. 

Their  tents  were  always  situated  on  the  seashore,  generally  on 
the  small  neck  of  land  that  separates  the  strand  lagoons  from  the 
sea.  They  are  erected  and  taken  down  in  a  few  hours.  Some- 
times they  appear  to  own  the  wooden  frame  of  a  tent  at  several 
places,  and,  in  such  cases,  at  removal  there  are  taken  along  only 
their  tent-covering,  the  dogs,  and  the  most  necessary  skin  and 
household  articles.  The  others  are  left  without  inclosure,  lock  or 
watch  at  the  former  dwelling-place,  and  one  is  certain  to  find  all 
untouched  on  his  return.f 

The  boats  are  made  of  walrus-skins  sewed  together  and  stretched 
over  a  light  framework  of  wood  and  pieces  of  bone.  The  different 
parts  of  the  framework  are  bound  together  with  thongs  of  skin  or 
strings  of  whalebone.  In  form  and  size  the  Chuckche  large  boat, 
atkuat,  called  by  the  Russians  baydar  corresponds  completely  with 
the  Greenlander's  umiak,  or  woman's  boat.  It  is  so  light  that  four 
men  can  take  it  upon  their  shoulders,  and  yet  so  roomy  that  thirty 
men  can  be  conveyed  in  it.  One  seldom  sees  anatkuat,  or  boats 
intended  for  only  one  man ;  they  are  much  worse-built  and  uglier 
than  the  Greenlander's  kayak.  The  large  boats  are  rowed  with 
broad-bladed  oars,  of  which  every  man  or  woman  manages  only 
one.  By  means  of  these  oars  a  sufficient  number  of  rowers  can 
for  a  little  while  raise  the  speed  of  the  boat  to  ten  kilometers  per 
hour.  Like  the  Greenlanders,  however,  they  often  cease  rowing 
in  order  to  rest,  laugh,  and  chatter,  then  row  furiously  for  some 
minutes,  rest  themselves  again,  row  rapidly,  and  so  on.  When 
the  sea  is  covered  with  thin,  newly-formed  ice,  they  put  two  men 
in  the  front  of  the  boat  with  one  leg  over,  in  order  to  trample  the 
ice  in  pieces.  During  the  winter  the  boats  are  laid  up,  and,  in- 
stead, the  dog-sledges  are  put  in  order. "J 

*  As  wood  for  building  is  not  to  be  found  on  the  Chuckche  coast,  they  make  use 
principally  of  whalebones  in  building  their  tents. 

f  Honesty  among  the  tribe  appears  to  have  been  the  universal  characteristic 
of  the  early  Indians  of  America  from  Chuckche  to  Chili.  When  the  Peruvians 
learned  that  the  Spaniards  locked  their  doors  they  contemned  them. 

J  "  Voyage  of  the  Vega,"  by  Baron  Adolf  Erik  Nordenskiold. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  .OF    AMERICA.  341 


CHAPTER    XXXIV. 

St.  Lawrence  Bay — Nunamo — The  Uses  of  the  Whale-bones — Flowers — Port 
Clarence — The  Natives — Eskimo — Their  Implements — Burials — Nephite — 
Ocean  Currents — The  Behring  Strait  Channel — Konyan  Bay — Geological 
Features — St.  Lawrence  Island  Eskimo— The  Discovery  of  Kamchatka — 
Expeditions  to  Kamchatka — Peter  the  Great — The  First  Voyage  of  Behring. 

AFTER  we  had  passed  the  easternmost  promontory  of  Asia  the 
course  was  shaped  first  to  St.  Lawrence  Bay,  a  not  inconsiderable 
fiord,  which  indents  the  Chukche  peninsula  a  little  south  of  the 
smallest  part  of  Behring  Strait  [21].  It  was  my  intention  to 
anchor  at  this  fiord  to  give  the  naturalists  of  the  Vega  expedition 
an  opportunity  of  making  acquaintance  with  the  natural  condi- 
tions of  a  part  of  the  Chukch  Land,  which  is  more  favored  by 
nature  than  the  bare  stretch  of  coast  completely  open  to  the  winds 
of  the  Polar  Sea,  which  we  hitherto  had  visited.  I  would  wil- 
lingly have  stayed  first  for  some  hours  at  Diomede  Island,  the  mar- 
ket-place famed  among  the  Polar  tribes,  situated  in  the  northwest  part 
of  the  Strait,  nearly  half  way  between  Asia  and  America,  and  probably 
before  the  time  of  Columbus  a  station  for  traffic  between  the  Old  and  the 
New  World.  But  such  a  delay  would  have  been  attended  with 
too  great  a  difficulty  and  loss  of  time  in  consequence  of  the  dense 
fogs  which  prevail  here.  Even  the  high  mountains  on  the  Asi- 
atic shore  were  still  wrapped  in  a  thick  mist,  from  which  only 
single  mountain  summits  now  and  then  appeared.  The  ice  was 
so  broken  up  that  the  Vega  could  steam  forward  at  full  speed  to 
the  neighborhood  of  St.  Lawrence  Bay. 

In  the  mouth  of  the  fiord  itself  impenetrable  ice  was  met  with, 
completely  blocking  the  splendid  haven  of  St.  Lawrence  Bay. 
The  Vega,  therefore,  was  compelled  to  anchor  in  the  open  road, 
off  the  village  Nunamo.  Our  stay  there  was  confined  to  a  few 
hours. 

During  the  course  of  the  winter  Lieut.  Nordquist  endeavored  to 
collect  from  the  Chukches  travelling  past  as  complete  information 
as  possible  regarding  the  Chukche  villages  or  encampments  which 
are  found  along  the  coast  between  Chaun  Bay  and  Behring  Strait. 
His  informants  always  finished  their  list  with  the  village  Ertryn, 
situated  west  of  Cape  Deschnev,  explaining  that  further  south  and 
east  there  lived  another  tribe,  with  whom,  indeed,  they  were  not  in 
open  enmity,  but  who  were  not  to  be  fully  depended  upon,  and 
to  whose  villages  they,  therefore,  dared  not  to  accompany  us. 


342  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

While  we  steamed  forward  cautiously  in  a  dense  fog  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Cape  Deschnev,  twenty  or  thirty  natives  came,  rowing 
in  a  large  skin-boat,  to  the  vessel.  We  received  them  with  pleas- 
ure. But  when  they  climbed  over  the  side  we  discovered  that  they 
were  pure  Chukches,  some  of  them  old  acquaintances,  who,  during 
the  winter,  had  been  guests  on  board  the  Vega.  "  Ankali"  said  they, 
with  evident  contempt,  are  first  met  with  further  beyond  St.  Law- 
rence Bay.  When  we  anchored  next  day  at  the  mouth  of  this  bay, 
we  were,  as  usual,  immediately  visited  by  a  large  number  of  natives, 
and  ourselves  visited  their  tents  on  land.  They  still  talked  Chuk- 
che  with  a  limited  mixture  of  foreign  words,  lived  in  tents  of  a  con- 
struction somewhat  different  from  the  Chukches,  and  appeared  to 
have  a  somewhat  different  cast  of  countenance.  They  themselves 
would  not  allow  that  there  was  any  national  difference  between 
them  and  the  old  warrior  and  conquering  tribe  on  the  north  coast, 
but  stated  that  the  race  about  which  we  inquired  was  settled  im- 
mediately to  the  south.  Some  days  after  we  anchored  in  Konyan 
Bay.  We  found  there  only  pure  reindeer-owning  Chukches ;  there 
was  no  coast  population  living  by  hunting  and  fishing.  On  the 
other  hand,  the'  inhabitants  near  our  anchorage  off  St.  Lawrence 
Island  consisted  of  Eskimo  and  Namollo.  It  thus  appears  as 
if  a  great  part  of  the  Eskimo  who  inhabited  the  Asiatic  side  of 
Behring  Strait  had,  during  recent  times,  lost  their  own  nation- 
ality and  become  fused  with  the  Chukches;  for  it  is  certain  that 
no  violent  expulsion  has  recently  taken  place  here.  It  ought,  be- 
sides, to  be  remarked  that  the  name  Onkilon,  which  Wrangel  heard 
given  to  the  old  coast  population  driven  out  by  the  Chukches,  is 
evidently  nearly  allied  to  the  word  Ankali,  with  which  the  rein- 
deer Chukches  at  present  distinguish  the  coast  Chukch ;  also,  that 
in  the  oldest  Russian  accounts  of  Schestakov's  and  Paulutski's 
campaigns  in  these  regions,  there  is  never  any  mention  of  two 
different  tribes  living  here.  It  therefore  appears  to  me  to  be,  on 
the  whole,  more  probable  that  the  Eskimo  here  emigrated  from 
America  to  Asia,  than  that,  as  some  authors  have  supposed,  this 
tribe  has  entered  America  from  the  east  by  Behring  Strait  or 
Wrangel  Land. 

The  tent-village  Nunamo  lies  pretty  high  up  on  a  cape  between 
the  sea  and  a  river  which  debouches  immediately  to  the  northwest 
of  the  village.  At  a  short  distance  from  the  coast  the  land  was 
occupied  by  a  very  high  chain  of  mountains,  which  was  split  up 
into  a  number  of  summits,  and  whose  sides  were  formed  of  im- 
mense stone  mounds  distributed  in  terraces.  The  village  con- 
sisted of  ten  tents  built  without  order  on  the  first  high  strand-bank. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  OF    AMERICA.  343 

The  tents  differed  somewhat  from  the  common  Chukche  tents.  In 
the  absence  of  driftwood,  whale-  and  seal-bones,  drenched  in 
train-oil,  are  used  as  fuel  in  cooking  in  the  open  air  during  sum- 
mer. A  large  curved  whale-rib  was  placed  over  the  fireplace  to 
serve  as  a  pot-holder;  the  vertebrse  of  the  whale  were  used  as 
mortars ;  hollowed  whale-bones  were  used  as  lamps ;  slices  of 
whale-bone  or  pieces  of  the  under  jaw  and  the  straighter  ribs  were 
used  for  shoeing  the  sledges,  for  spades  and  ice-mattocks,  the 
different  parts  of  the  implement  being  bound  together  with  whale- 
bone fibres,  etc. 

When  we  left  Pitlekaj  vegetation  there  was  still  far  from  having 
reached  its  full  development,  but  at  Nunamo  the  strand-bank 
was  gay  with  an  exceedingly  rich  magnificence  of  color.  On  an 
area  of  a  few  acres  Dr.  Kjellman  collected  more  than  a  hun- 
dred species  of  flowering  plants,  among  which  was  a  considerable 
number  that  he  had  not  before  seen  on  the  Chukch  peninsula. 

During  an  excursion  to  the  top  of  one  of  the  neighboring  moun- 
tains Dr.  Stuxberg  found  the  corpse  of  a  native  laid  out  on  a  stone- 
setting  of  a  form  common  to  the  Chukches.  Alongside  the  dead 
man  lay  a  broken  percussion-gun,  spear,  arrows,  tinder-box,  pipe 
and  various  other  articles.  The  pipe  was  one  of  the  clay  pipes 
that  I  caused  to  be  distributed  to  the  natives.  It  had  been  placed 
there  long  after  the  proper  burial. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  21st  of  July,  1879,  I  ordered  the  anchor 
to  be  weighed  that  the  Vega  might  steam  across  to  the  American 
side  of  Behring  Strait.  As  in  all  the  polar  seas  of  the  northern 
hemisphere,  so  also  here  the  western  side  of  the  strait  was  ice- 
bestrewed  ;  the  eastern,  on  the  other  hand,  clear  of  ice.  The 
passage  was  a  rapid  one,  so  that  by  the  afternoon  of  the  21st  of 
July  we  were  able  to  anchor  in  Port  Clarence,  an  excellent  haven 
south  of  the  westernmost  promontory  of  America — Cape  Prince 
of  Wales. 

Towards  the  sea  Port  Clarence  is  protected  by  a  long,  low,  sandy 
reef,  between  the  north  end  of  which  and  the  land  there  is  a  con- 
venient and  deep  entrance.  There  a  considerable  river  falls  into 
the  interior  of  the  harbor,  the  mouth  of  which  widens  into  a  lake, 
which  is  separated  from  the  outer  harbor  by  a  sandy  neck  of  land. 
This  lake  also  forms  a  good  and  spacious  harbor,  but  its  entrance 
is  too  shallow  for  vessels  of  any  considerable  draught. 

The  river  itself  is  deep,  and,  about  eighteen  kilometres  from  its 
mouth,  flows  through  another  lake,  from  the  eastern  shore  of  which 
rugged  and  shattered  mountains  rise  to  a  height  which  I  estimated 
at  eight  hundred  to  one  thousand  metres,  but  their  height  may  be 


344  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

twice  as  great,  for  in  making  such  estimates  one  is  liable  to  fall 
into  error. 

Immediately  after  the  anchor  fell  we  were  visited  by  several  very 
large  skin-boats  and  a  large  number  of  kayaks;  the  latter  were 
larger  than  the  Greenlanders',  being  commonly  intended  for  two 
persons,  who  sit  back  to  back  in  the  middle  of  the  craft.  After  the 
natives  came  on  board  a  lively  traffic  commenced.  I  examined 
carefully  the  skin  bags  which  the  natives  had  with  them.  In  doing 
so  I  picked  out  one  thing  after  another  while  they  did  not  object 
to  me  making  an  inventory.  One  of  them,  however,  showed  great 
unwillingness  to  allow  me  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  sack  ;  but 
this  made  me  more  curious  to  ascertain  what  was  concealed  there. 
I  was  urgent,  and  went  through  the  bag  half  by  violence  until  at 
last,  in  the  bottom,  I  got  a  solution  of  the  riddle — a  loaded  revolver. 
Several  of  the  natives  had  also  breech-loaders.  The  oldest  age, 
with  stone  implements,  and  the  most  recent  period,  with  breech- 
loaders, thus  here  reached  hands  to  one  another. 

Many  natives  were  evidently  emigrating  to  more  northerly 
hunting-grounds  and  fishing-places.  Others  had  already  pitched 
their  summer  tents  on  the  banks  of  the  inner  harbor  or  of  the 
river  before  mentioned.  On  the  other  hand,  there  was  found  in 
the  region  only  a  small  number  of  winter  dwellings  abandoned 
during  the  warm  season  of  the  year.  The  population  consisted 
of  Eskimo.  They  did  not  understand  a  word  of  Chukche.  Among 
them,  however,  we  found  a  Chukche  woman,  who  stated  that  true 
Chukches  were  found  also  on  the  American  side  north  of  Behring 
Strait.  Two  of  the  men  spoke  a  little  English,  one  had  been  even  to 
San  Francisco,  another  to  Honolulu.  Many  of  their  household  ar- 
ticles reminded  us  of  contact  with  American  whalers;  and  justice 
demands  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that,  in  opposition  to  what  we 
commonly  see  stated,  contact  with  men  of  civilized  race  appears 
to  have  been  to  the  advantage  and  improvement  of  the  savage  in 
an  economical  and  moral  point  of  view.  The  arrangement  of  the 
hair  resembled  that  of  the  Chukches.  The  women  were  tattooed 
with  some  lines  on  the  chin.  Many  of  the  men  wore  small  mus- 
tachios,  some  even  a  scanty  beard,  while  others  had  attempted  the 
American  goatee.  Most  of  them,  but  not  all,  had  two  holes  cut  in 
the  lip  below  the  corners  of  the  mouth.  In  these  holes  were  worn 
large  pieces  of  bone,  glass,  or  stone.*  But  these  ornaments  were 
often  removed,  and  then  the  edges  of  the  large  holes  closed  so 
much  that  the  face  was  not  much  disfigured.  Many  had,  in  addi- 

*  I  have  seen  Choctaws  with  tin  in  the  form  of  a  semicircle  or  crescent  nearly 
two  inches  in  diameter  suspended  from  the  cartilage  of  the  nose. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  OF   AMERICA.  345 

tion,  a  similar  hole  forward  in  the  lip.  It  struck  me,  however, 
that  this  strange  custom  was  about  to  disappear  completely,  or,  at 
least,  to  be  Europeanized  by  the  exchange  of  holes  in  the  mouth  for 
holes  in  the  ears.  An  almost  full-grown  young  woman  had  a 
large  blue  glass  bead  hanging  from  the  nose,  in  whose  partition  a 
hole  had  been  made  for  its  suspension.  All  the  women  had  long 
strings  of  beads  in  their  ears.  They  wore  bracelets  of  iron  or  cop- 
per, resembling  those  of  the  Chukches.  The  color  of  the  skin  was 
not  very  dark,  with  perceptible  redness  of  the  cheeks ;  the  hair 
black  and  tallow-like ;  the  eyes  small,  brown,  slightly  oblique ; 
the  face  flat;  the  nose  small  and  depressed  at  the  root.  Most  of 
the  natives  were  of  average  height,  appeared  to  be  healthy  and  in 
good  condition,  and  were  marked  neither  by  striking  thinness  nor 
corpulence.  The  feet  and  hands  were  small. 

A  certain  elegance  and  order  prevailed  in  their  small  tents,  the 
floor  of  which  was  covered  with  mats  of  plaited  plants.  In  many 
places  vessels  formed  of  cocoanut-shells  were  to  be  seen,  brought 
thither,  like  some  of  the  mats,  by  whalers  from  the  South  Sea 
Islands.  For  the  most  part  their  household  and  hunting  imple- 
ments were  of  American  origin,  but  they  still  preserve  in  the  lum- 
ber depositories  of  the  tent  bows  and  arrows,  bird-darts,  bone 
boat-hooks,  and  various  stone  implements.  The  fishing  imple- 
ments, especially,  were  made  with  extraordinary  skill  of  colored 
sorts  of  bone  or  stone,  glass  beads,  and  red  pieces  of  the  feet  of  cer- 
tain swimming  birds,  etc.  The  different  materials  were  bound 
together  by  twine  made  of  whalebone  in  such  a  manner  that  they 
resembled  large  beetles,  being  intended  for  use  in  the  same  way 
as  salmon-flies. 

Fire  was  got  partly  with  steel,  flint,  and  tinder,  partly  by  means 
of  the  fire-drill.  The  bow  of  the  fire-drill  was  often  of  ivory,  richly 
ornamented  with  hunting  figures  of  different  kinds.  Their  tools 
were  more  elegant,  better  carved,  and  more  richly  colored  with 
graphite  and  red  ochre  than  those  of  the  Chukches.  The  people 
were  better  off,  and  owned  a  larger  number  of  skin-boats,  both 
kayaks  and  umiaks.  All  the  older  accounts,  however,  agree  in  rep- 
resenting that,  in  former  times,  the  Chukches  were  recognized  as  a 
great  power  by  the  other  savage  tribes  in  these  regions,  but  all 
recent  observations  indicate  that  that  time  is  now  past.  A  certain 
respect  for  them,  however,  appears  still  to  prevail  among  their 
neighbors. 

The  natives,  after  the  first  mistrust  had  disappeared,  were 
friendly  and  accommodating,  honorable  in  their  dealings,  though 
given  to  begging  and  to  much  haggling  in  making  a  bargain. 


346  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

There  appeared  to  be  no  chief  among  them ;  complete  equality 
prevailed,  and  the  position  of  the  women  did  not  appear  to  be 
inferior  to  that  of  the  men.  The  children  were  what  we  would 
call  well  brought  up,  though  they  got  no  bringing  up  at  all.  All 
were  heathens.  The  liking  for  spirits  appeared  to  be  less  strong 
than  among  the  Chukches. 

During  our  stay  among  the  Chukches  my  supply  of  articles  for 
barter  was  very  limited,  for  uncertainty  prevailed  to  the  hour  of 
our  departure  as  to  the  time  when  we  should  get  free,  and  I  was 
therefore  compelled  to  be  sparing  of  the  stores.  Here  I  was  a 
rich  man,  many  thanks  to  the  large  surplus  that  was  over  from 
our  abundant  winter  equipment.  I  turned  my  riches  to  account 
by  making  visits,  like  a  peddler,  in  the  tent-villages,  with  sacks 
full  of  felt-hats,  thick  clothes,  stockings,  ammunition,  etc.,  for 
which  I  obtained  a  beautiful  and  choice  collection  of  ethnographi- 
cal articles.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  beautiful  bone 
etchings  and  carvings,  and  several  arrow-points,  and  other  tools 
of  a  species  of  nephrite,  which  is  so  puzzlingly  like  the  well-known 
nephrite  from  High  Asia  that  I  am  disposed  to  believe  that  it 
actually  came  originally  from  that  locality.  In  such  a  case  the 
occurrence  of  nephrite  at  Behring  Strait  is  important,  because  it 
cannot  be  explained  in  any  other  way  than  either  by  supposing 
that  the  tribes  living  here  have  carried  the  mineral  with  them 
from  their  original  home  in  High  Asia,  or  that  during  the  Stone 
Age  of  High  Asia  a  like  extended  commercial  intercommunica- 
tion took  place  between  the  wild  races  as  now  exists,  or  at  least 
some  decades  ago  existed,  along  the  north  parts  of  Asia  and 
America.* 

On  the  north  side  of  the  harbor  we  found  two  Eskimo  graves. 

*  "Nephrite  is  a  light-green,  sometimes  grass-green,  very  hard  and  compact 
species  of  amphibolite,  which  occurs  in  High  Asia,  Mexico  and  New  Zealand. 
In  all  these  places  it  has  been  employed  for  stone  implements,  vases,  pipes,  etc. 
The  Chinese  put  an  immensely  high  value  upon  it.  Nephrite  was  also,  perhaps, 
the  first  of  all  stones  to  be  used  ornamentally,  for  we  find  axes  and  chisels 
of  this  material  among  the  people  of  the  Stone  Age,  both  in  Europe  (where  no 
locality  is  known  where  unworked  nephrite  is  found),  and  in  Asia,  America, 
and  New  Zealand.  In  Asia  implements  of  nephrite  art  found  both  on  the 
Chukche  Peninsula  and  in  all  graves  from  the  Stone  Age,  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  country.  They  have  been  discovered  at  Telma,  sixty  versts  from  Irk- 
utsk. In  scientific  mineralogy  nephrite  is  first  mentioned  under  the  name  of 
Kascholong  (i.e.,  a  species  of  stone  from  the  river  Kasch).  It  has  been  brought 
to  Sweden  under  this  name  by  Kenat,  a  prisoner  of  war  from  Charles  XII. 's 
army,  from  High  Asia.  Kascholong  has  erroneously  been  considered  a  species 
of  quartz." 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  .OF    AMERICA,  347 

The  corpses  had  been  laid  in  the  ground  fully  clothed,  without 
l^he  protection  of  any  coffin,  but  surrounded  by  a  close  fence, 
consisting  of  a  number  of  tent-poles  driven  crosswise  into  the 
ground.  Alongside  of  the  corpses  lay  a  kayak  with  oars,  a  loaded 
double-barrelled  gun,  with  locks  at  half-cock  and  caps  on,  various 
other  weapons,  clothes,  tinder-box,  snow-shoes,  drinking  vessels, 
two  masks  carved  in  wood  and  smeared  with  blood,  and  strangely 
shaped  animal  figures.  Such  were  seen  also  in  the  tents.  Bags 
of  seal-skins,  intended  to  be  inflated  and  fastened  to  harpoons  as 
floats,  were  sometimes  ornamented  with  small  faces  carved  in 
wood.  In  one  of  two  amulets  of  the  same  kind  one  eye  is  repre- 
sented by  a  piece  of  blue  enamel  stuck  in,  and  the  other  by  a 
piece  of  iron  pyrites  fixed  in  the  same  way.  Behind  two  tents 
were  found  erected  on  posts,  a  metre  and  a  half  high,  roughly 
formed  wooden  images  of  birds  with  expanded  wings,  painted  red. 
I  endeavored,  unsuccessfully,'  to  purchase  these  tent-idols  for  a 
large  new  felt-hat — an  article  for  which  I  could  obtain  almost 
anything. 

As  the  west  coast  of  Europe  is  washed  by  the  Gulf  Stream,  there 
also  runs  along  the  Pacific  coast  of  America  a  warm  current,  which 
gives  the  land  a  much  milder  climate  than  that  which  prevails  on 
the  neighboring  Asiatic  side,  whereas  on  the  east  coast  of  Green- 
land there  runs  a  cold  northerly  current.  The  limit  of  trees,  there- 
fore, in  northwestern  America  goes  a  great  way  north  of  Behring 
Strait,  while  on  the  Chukche  Peninsula  wood  appears  to  be 
wholly  wanting.  Even  at  Port  Lawrence  the  coast  is  devoid  of 
trees,  but  some  kilometres  into  the  country  alder  bushes  two  feet 
high  are  met  with,  and  behind  the  coast  hills  actual  forests  proba- 
bly occur.  Vegetation  is,  besides,  already  luxuriant  at  the  coast, 
and  far  away  here  on  the  coast  of  the  New  World  many  species 
are  to  be  found  nearly  allied  to  Scandinavian  plants. 

On  the  26th  of  July,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  we 
weighed  anchor  and  steamed  back  to  the  shore  of  the  Old  World. 
Lieutenant  Bove  constructed  a  diagram,  from  which  it  may  be 
seen  how  shallow  is  the  sound,  which  in  the  northernmost  part  of 
the  Pacific  separates  the  Old  World  from  the  New.  An  elevation 
of  the  land  less  than  that  which  has  taken  place  since  the  glacial 
period  at  the  well-known  Chapel  Hill  at  Uddevalla  would  evidently 
be  sufficient  to  unite  the  two  worlds,  and  a  corresponding  depres- 
sion would  have  been  enough  to  separate  them,  if,  as  is  probable, 
they  were  at  one  time  continuous.  The  diagram  shows,  besides, 
that  the  deepest  channel  is  quite  close  to  the  coast  of  the  Chukche 
Peninsula,  and  that  the  channel  contains  a  mass  of  cold  water 


348  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

which  is  separated  by  a  ridge  from  the  warmer  water  on  the 
American  side. 

The  Vega  anchored  on  the  forenoon  of  the  28th  of  July,  in  the 
mouth  of  the  most  northerly  of  the  fiords,  Konyan  Bay.  This 
portion  of  the  Chukche  Peninsula  had  been  visited  before  us  by 
Captain  (afterwards  Admiral)  Lutke.  Captain  Moor,  of  the  Frank- 
lin Expedition,  wintered  here  in  1848  and  1849.  The  region  ap- 
pears to  have  been  then  inhabited  by  a  rather  dense  population. 
Now  there  lived  at  the  bay  where  we  had  anchored  only  three 
reindeer  Chukche  families,  and  the  neighboring  islands  must  at 
the  time  have  been  uninhabited,  or  perhaps  the  arrival  of  the 
Vega  may  not  have  been  observed,  for  no  natives  came  on  board. 

The  .shore  at  the  southeast  part  of  Konyan  Bay,  in  which  the 
Vega  now  lay  at  anchor  for  a  couple  of  days,  consists  of  rather  a 
desolate  bog,  in  which  a  large  number  of  cranes  were  breeding. 
Further  into  the  country  several  mountain  summits  rose  to  the 
height  of  nearly  six  hundred  metres.  On  the  north  side  of  the 
bay,  to  which  excursions  were  made  with  the  steam  launch,  grassy 
slopes  were  met  with,  with  pretty  high  bushy  thickets,  and  a  great 
variety  of  flowers. 

We  also  visited  the  dwellings  of  the  reindeer  Chukche  families. 
They  resemble  the  Chukche  tents  we  had  seen  before,  and  the 
mode  of  life  of  the  inhabitants  differed  but  little  from  that  of  the 
coast  Chukches,  with  whom  we  passed  the  winter.  They  were  even 
clothed  in  the  same  way,  excepting  that  the  men  wore  a  num- 
ber of  small  bells  in  the  belt.  The  number  of  reindeer  which 
these  families  owned  was  only  about  four  hundred,  considerably 
fewer  than  is  required  to  feed  three  Lapp  families. 

The  neighborhood  of  Konyan  Bay  consists  of  crystalline  rocks, 
granite  poor  in  mica,  and  mica-schist  lowermost,  and  then  gray 
non-fossiliferous  carbonate  of  lime,  and  last  of  all  magnesian 
schists,  porphyry,  and  quartzites.  Here,  however,  we  are  already 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  volcanic  hearths  of  Kamchatka,  which, 
for  instance,  is  shown  by  the  hot  springs  not  far  from  the  coast. 
In  the  middle  of  the  severe  cold  of  February  its  waters  had  a 
temperature  +  69°  C.  Hot  steam  and  snow  combined  had  thrown 
over  the  spring  a  lofty  vault  of  dazzling  whiteness  formed  of 
masses  of  snow  converted  into  ice  and  covered  with  ice-crystals. 

The  interior  of  Konyan  Bay  was,  during  our  stay  there,  still 
covered  with  an  unbroken  sheet  of  ice,  which  broke  up  in  the  af- 
ternoon of  the  30th  of  July,  when  steam  was  got  up,  the  anchor 
weighed,  and  the  vessel  removed  to  the  open  part  of  the  fiord.  The 
fear  that  a  too  lengthened  delay  might  lead  to  a  heavy  expendi- 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  OF    AMERICA.  349 

ture  of  money,  I  preferred  to  sail  on  immediately,  rather  than 
enter  a  safer  harbor  in  the  neighborhood.  The  course  was  now 
shaped  for  the  northwest  point  of  St.  Lawrence  Island,  and  the 
Vega  was  anchored  on  the  31st  of  July  in  an  open  bay  on  the 
northwest  side  of  St.  Lawrence  Island.  This  island  is  the  largest 
between  the  Aleutian  Islands  and  Behring  Strait.  It  lies  nearer 
Asia  than  America,  but  is  considered  as  belonging  to  the  latter, 
for  which  reason  it  was  handed  over,  along  with  Alaska  Ter- 
ritory, by  Russia  to  the  United  States.  The  island  is  inhabited 
by  a  few  Eskimo  families,  who  have  commercial  relations  with 
their  Chukche  neighbors  on  the  Russian  side,  and  therefore  have 
adopted  some  words  from  their  language.  On  the  St.  Lawrence 
Island  their  dress  is  much  ornamented,  chiefly  with  tufts  of 
feathers  of  the  sea- fowls  that  breed  in  innumerable  flocks  on  the 
island.  At  the  time  of  our  visit  all  the  natives  went  bareheaded. 
The  women  wore  their  hair  plaited  and  adorned  with  beads,  and 
were  much  tattooed.  Like  the  children,  they  mostly  went  bare- 
footed-and  bare-legged. 

The  winter  dwellings  were  now  abandoned.  They  appear  to 
consist  of  holes  in  the  ground,  which  were  covered  above,  with  the 
exception  of  a  square  opening,  with  driftwood  and  turf.  During 
the  winter  a  seal-skin  tent  was  probably  stretched  over  the  open- 
ing. At  several  tents  were  found  large  under-jaws  of  whales  fixed 
in  the  ground.  Masses  of  whale-bones  lay  thrown  up  along  the 
shore.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  tents  graves  were  found.  The 
corpses  had  been  placed,  unburned,  in  some  cleft  among  the 
rocks. 

Northeast  of  the  anchorage  the  shore  was  formed  of  low  hills 
rising  with  a  steep  slope  from  the  sea.  Here  and  there  ruin-like 
cliffs  projected  from  the  hills.  The  rock  here  consisted  of  the 
same  sort  of  granite  which  formed  the  lowermost  stratum  of  Kon- 
yan  Bay.  It  was  principally  at  the  foot  of  these  slopes  that  the 
natives  erected  their  dwellings.  Southwest  of  the  anchorage  com- 
menced a  very  extensive  plain,  which,  towards  the  interior  of  the 
island,  was  marshy,  but  along  the  coast  formed  a  firm,  even,  grassy 
meadow  exceedingly  rich  in  flowers.  The  natives  had  a  few  dogs 
but  no  reindeer,  which,  however,  might  find  food  on  the  island  in 
thousands.  No  kayaks  were  in  use,  but  large  baydars  of  the 
same  construction  as  those  of  the  Chukches. 

St.  Lawrence  Island  was  discovered  during  Behring's  first  voy- 
ages, which  extended  between  July,  1725,  to  July,  1729,  though 
to  Deschnev,  who  sailed  through  the  Straits  eighty  years  before, 
should  properly  belong  the  first  discovery.  The  first  who  came 


350  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

in  contact  with  the  natives  at  St.  Lawrence  Island  was  Otto  von 
Kotzebue,  on  the  27th  of  June,  1816,  and  20th  of  July,  1817.  The 
inhabitants  had  not  before  seen  any  Europeans,  and  they  received 
the  foreigners  with  great  kindness. 

As  Kotzebue,  two  days  after,  sailed  past  the  north  point  of  the 
island,  he  met  three  baydars.  In  one  of  them  a  man  stood  up, 
held  up  a  little  dog  and  pierced  it  through  with  his  knife,  as  Kot- 
zebue believed,  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  foreigners.* 

Since  1817  naval  exploring  expeditions  have  landed  on  St.  Law- 
rence Island,  but  always  only  a  few  hours.  It  is  very  dangerous 
to  stay  long  here  with  a  vessel.  Captain  Polander  was,  on  this 
account,  anxious  to  leave  the  place  as  soon  as  possible.  On  the 
2d  of  August,  1829,  we  accordingly  resumed  our  voyage. 

Some  account  remains  to  be  given  of  the  discovery  of  Kam- 
chatka. Volodomir  Atlassov  is  considered  its  proper  discoverer. 
While  he  was  commander  at  Anadrysk,  he  sent  out,  in  1696,  the 
Cossack,  Lucas  Semenov  Sin  Morosko,  with  sixteen  men  to  bring 
the  tribes  living  in  the  north  under  tribute.  The  commission  was 
executed,  and  on  his  return  Morosko  stated  that  he  was  not  only 
among  the  Koryaks,  but  that  he  also  penetrated  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  river  Kamchatka,  and  that  he  took  a  Kamchadel 
"  ostrog  "  (fort)  and  found  in  it  some  manuscripts  in  an  unknown 
language,  which,  according  to  information  afterward  received,  had 
belonged  to  some  Japanese  who  had  stranded  on  the  coast  of 
Kamchatka.f  It  was  the  first  hint  the  conquerors  of  Siberia  ob- 
tained of  being  in  the  neighborhood  of  Japan. 

The  year  after,  Atlassov  followed  the  way  which  Morosko  had 
opened  up,  and  penetrated  to  the  river  Kamchatka,  where,  as  a  sign 
that  he  had  taken  possession  of  the  land,  he  erected  a  cross  with 
an  inscription  which  when  translated  runs  thus  :  "  In  the  year  7205 
(i.  e,  1697),  on  the  13th  of  July,  this  cross  was  erected  by  the  pia- 
tidesatnik  (i.  e.,  commander  of  fifty  men)  Volodomir  Atlassov  and 
his  followers,  fifty-five  men."  Atlassov  then  built  on  the  Kam- 
chatka River  a  simovie,  which  was  afterward  fortified  and  named 
Verchni  Kamchatskoj  Ostrog.  Hence  the  Russians  extended  their 
power  over  the  land. 

In  1700  Atlassov  travelled  to  Moscow,  carrying  with  him  a  Japa- 
nese who  had  been  taken  prisoner  after  being  shipwrecked  on  the 

*  The  Chippewas,  on  a  voyage,  sacrifice  a  dog  to  propitiate  the  god  of  storms, 
by  tying  and  casting  it  into  the  water.  See  Henry's  "Narrative." 

t  In  one  account,  1698-1699  are  given  as  the  years  of  Moro&ko's  and  Atlas- 
sov's  expedition.  Several  authorities  are  quoted  in  "The  Voyage  of  the 
Vega"  in  verification  of  the  above  facts. 


CHAP.  XXXIV.]  OF    AMERICA.  351 

coast  of  Kamchatka,  and  the  collected  tribute  which  consisted  of 
the  skins  of  thirty-two  hundred  sables,  ten  sea-otters,  seven  beavers, 
four  otters,  ten  grey-foxes,  and  one  hundred  and  ninety-one  red 
foxes.  He  was  received  graciously,  and  sent  back  as  commander 
of  the  Cossacks  in  Yakutsk,  with  orders  to  complete  the  conquest 
of  Kamchatka.  An  interruption,  however,  happened,  for  some  time 
in  the  path  of  Atlassov,  as  a  warrior  and  discoverer,  in  consequence 
of  his  having,  during  his  return  journey  to  Yakutsk,  plundered  a 
Russian  vessel  loaded  with  Chinese  goods.  He  was  not  set  free 
till  1706,  and  then  recovered  his  command  in  Kamchatka.  Fi- 
nally in  1711,  Atlassov  and  several  other  officers  were  murdered 
by  their  own  countrymen.  Their  murderers  undertook  to  subdue 
the  unconquered  parts  of  Kamchatka  and  the  two  northernmost 
of  the  Kurile  Islands.  Further  information  about  the  countries 
lying  farther  south  was  obtained  from  some  Japanese  who  were 
shipwrecked,  in  1710,  on  Kamchatka. 

At  first,  in  order  to  get  to  Kamchatka,  the  difficult  detour  by 
Anadyrsk  was  taken.  But  in  the  year  1711  the  commander  at 
Okotsk  was  ordered  to  proceed  by  sea  from  Okotsk  to  Kamchatka, 
but  this  voyage  could  not  come  off,  because  at  that  time  there 
were  at  Okotsk  neither  sea-going  boats,  seamen,  nor  even  men  ac- 
customed to  the  use  of  the  compass.  Some  years  after,  Ivan  Soro- 
kaumov  with  twelve  Cossacks  was  sent  to  Okotsk  to  make  arrange- 
ments for  this  voyage,  but  the  same  difficulties  still  existed,  and 
after  Sorokaumov  had  created  great  confusion  he  was  imprisoned 
and  sent  back.  Peter  the  Great  now  commanded  that  men  ac- 
quainted with  navigation  should  be  sought  for  among  the  Swedish  pris- 
oners of  war  and  sent  to  Okotsk ;  that  they  should  build  a  boat  there, 
and,  provided  with  a  compass,  go  by  sea  along  with  some  Cossacks  to 
Kamchatka  and  return.  Thus  navigation  began  on  the  Sea  of 
Okotsk.  Among  the  Swedes  who  opened  it  is  mentioned  Henry 
Busch.  According  to  Muller,  who  met  with  him  at  Yakutsk  as 
late  as  1736,  he  was  born  at  Hoorn,  in  Holland.  He  gave  Muller 
the  following  account  of  his  first  voyage  across  the  Sea  of  Okotsk. 

After  arriving  at  Okotsk  they  built  a  vessel  resembling  the 
lodjas.  This  vessel  was  strong;  its  length  was  eight  and  a  half 
fathoms,  its  breadth  three  fathoms,  the  freeboard  when  the  vessel 
was  loaded,  three  and  a  half  feet.  The  first  voyage  took  place  in 
June,  1716.  They  wintered  at  the  river  Kompakova.  During  the 
winter  the  sea  cast  up  a  whale  which  had  in  its  carcass  a  harpoon 
of  European  manufacture  and  with  Latin  letters.  The  vessel  left 
the  winter-haven  in  the  middle  of  May  (new  style),  1717,  and  was 
for  five  and  a  half  weeks  beset  by  ice-fields.  In  the  end  of  July 


352  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXIV. 

they  were  again  back  at  Okotsk.  From  this  time  there  has  been 
regular  communication  between  this  town  and  Kamchatka. 

Peter  the  Great,  during  the  last  years  of  his  life,  arranged  one 
of  the  greatest  geographical,  expeditions  which  the  history  of  the 
world  can  show.  It  was  not  until  after  his  death,  however,  that  it 
was  carried  out,  and  then  it  went  on  for  a  series  of  years  on  so 
large  a  scale  that  whole  tribes  are  said  to  have  been  impoverished 
through  the  severe  exactions  of  transport  that  were,  on  this  ac- 
count, imposed  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  Siberian  deserts.  Its 
many  different  divisions  are  now  comprehended  under  the  name 
The  Great  Northern  Expedition.  Through  the  writings  of  Behring, 
Muller,  Gmelin,  Steller,  Krascheninnikov  and  others,  this  expedi- 
tion has  acquired  an  important  place  for  all  time  in  the  history  not 
only  of  geography,  but  also  of  ethnography,  zoology  and  botany ; 
and  even  now  the  inquirer,  when  the  natural  conditions  of  North 
Asia  are  in  question,  must  turn  to  these  works. 

The  Great  Northern  Expedition  was  ushered  in  by  the  first  ex- 
pedition to  Kamchatka.  The  commander  of  this  expedition  was 
the  Dane,  Vitus  Behring,  who  was  accompanied  by  Lieutenant 
Morton  Spangberg,  also  a  Dane  by  birth,  and  Alexei  Chirikov. 

They  left  St.  Petersburg  in  February,  1725,  and  took  the  land 
route  across  Siberia,  carrying  with  them  the  necessary  materials 
with  which  in  Kamchatka  to  build  and  equip  the  vessel  with  which 
they  should  make  the  voyage  of  exploration.  More  than  three 
years  were  required  for  the  voyage,  or,  rather,  for  this  geographico- 
scientific  campaign.  It  was  not  until  the  16th  (4th)  of  April  that 
a  beginning  could  be  made  at  Nischni  Kamchatskoj  Ostrog  of 
building  the  vessel,  which  was  launched  on  the  21st  (10th)  of 
July,  and  on  the  31st  (20th)  of  the  same  month  Behring  began  his 
voyage.  On  the  21st  (10th)  of  August  St.  Lawrence  Island  was 
discovered,  and  on  the  26th  (15th)  of  the  same  month  the  explor- 
ers sailed  past  the  northeastern  promontory  of  Asia,  in  67°  18', 
and  observed  that  the  coast  trends  to  the  west  from  that  point. 
Behring,  on  this  account,  considered  that  he  had  fulfilled  his  com- 
mission to  ascertain  whether  Asia  and  America  were  separated, 
and  he  now  determined  to  return.  It  was  during  this  voyage  that 
the  sound  which  has  since  obtained  the  name  of  Behring  Strait 
is  considered  to  have  been  discovered ;  but  it  is  now  known  that  this 
discovery  properly  belongs  to  the  gallant  hunter  Deschnev,  who 
sailed  through  these  straits  eighty  years  before.  Several  state- 
ments by  Kamchadales  regarding  a  great  country  towards  the 
east  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea  induced  Behring,  the  following 
year,  to  sail  away  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  this  was  the  case. 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  OF    AMERICA.  353 

In  consequence  of  unfavorable  weather  he  did  not  reach  the  coast  of 
America,  but  returned,  after  which  he  sailed  to  Okotsk,  where  he  ar- 
rived on  August  3d  (July  23d),  1729,  whence  he  went  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, which  he  reached  after  a  journey  of  six  months  and  nine  days. 

In  maps  published  during  Behring's  absence  Kamchatka  had 
been  delineated  with  so  long  an  extension  towards  the  south  that 
this  peninsula  was  connected  with  Yezo,  the  northernmost  of  the 
large  Japanese  Islands.  The  distance  between  Kamchatka  and 
Japan,  rich  in  wares,  would  thus  have  been  quite  inconsiderable. 

This  nearness  was  believed  to  be  further  confirmed  by  another 
Japanese  ship  manned  by  seventeen  men  and  laden  with  silk,  rice 
and  paper,  having  stranded,  in  July,  1729,  on  Kamchatka  south  of 
Avatscha  Bay.  In  this  neighborhood  there  was,  along  with  a  num- 
ber of  natives,  a  small  party  of  Cossacks,  under  the  command  of 
Schtinnikov.  He  at  first  accepted  several  presents  of  the  ship- 
wrecked men,  but  afterwards  withdrew  from  the  place  where  the 
wreck  took  place.  When  the  Japanese,  on  this  account,  rowed  on 
along  the  coast,  Schtinnikov  gave  orders  to  follow*them  in  a 
baydar  and  kill  them  all  but  two.  The  cruel  deed  was  carried 
into  execution,  on  which  the  malefactors  took  possession  of  the 
goods  and  broke  in  pieces  the  boats,  in  order  to  obtain  the  iron 
with  which  the  boards  were  fastened  together.  The  two  Japanese 
who  were  saved  were  carried  to  Nischni  Kamchatskoj  Ostrog,  and 
sent  to  St.  Petersburg,  where  they  learned  the  Russian  language, 
while  some  Russians  learned  the  Japanese.  The  Japanese,  who 
were  both  from  Smetsua,  died  between  1730  and  1739.  Their 
vessel  had  been  bound  for  Osaka,  but  having  been  carried  out  of 
its  course  by  a  storm,  had  drifted  about  at  sea  for  six  months, 
stranding  at  length,  with  so  unfortunate  a  result  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  crew.  Schtinnikov  was  hung  for  his  crime.* 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

The  Voyage  of  Marco  Polo,  1291— Jewish  and  Egyptian  Types  among  Indians 
in  America — The  Voyages  of  the  Norsemen  (860-1000  A.D.  ) — Their  Koute 
to  America — Their  Relics  on  Baffin's  Bay — The  Voyage  of  Leif  Eireksen— 
The  Viking  Vessel  of  Gokstad,  Norway — The  Voyage  of  Captain  Magnus 
Andersen  on  the  Viking,  1893  A.D. 

IT  has  been  shown  that  the  northern  coast  of  Asia  is  inhabited 
for  twenty  degrees  of  longitude  west  of  Behring  Strait — from  Chaun 

*  "  Voyage  of  the  Vega,"  by  Baron  Adolf  Erik  Nordenskiold. 
23 


354  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

Bay  to  Behring  Strait.;  that  the  eastern  shore  of  the  strait  is  also 
inhabited,  and  the  coast  on  that  side  for  several  degrees  north  of 
the  strait ;  that  intercourse  exists,  and  has  existed,  between  the 
inhabitants  of  the  eastern  and  western  shores  of  the  strait;  that 
the  northern  coast  of  Asia  has  been  inhabited  for  hundreds  of 
years ;  in  fact,  it  is  not  known  how  long  it  has  been  inhabited 
beyond  the  existence  of  the  present  evidences  of  its  habitation 
centuries  ago.  From  these  facts  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
intercourse  has  existed  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  north- 
western part  of  North  America  and  the  northeastern  part  of  Asia 
ever  since  these  parts  have  been  inhabited.  And  there  are  reasons 
to  believe  that  China  and  Japan  in  remote  ages  had  intercourse 
with  America. 

Kublai-khan,  the  Grand  Khan  of  all  the  Tartars,  and  fifth  in 
succession  from  Ghengis-khan,  reigned  in  the  city  of  Kambalu, 
the  capital  of  Cathay,  or  China,  when  Marco  Polo  arrived  there 
about  the  year  1273  or  1274.  It  happened,  while  Polo  was  there  in 
the  service  fcf  the  Grand  Khan,  that  the  wife  of  Argun,  sovereign 
of  India,  died,  about  1287.  Argun  deputed  three  of  his  nobles, 
attended  by  a  numerous  retinue,  as  his  ambassadors  to  the  Grand 
Khan,  with  request  that  he  might  receive  at  his  hand  a  maiden  to 
wife  from  among  the  relatives  of  his  deceased  queen.  Under  the 
directions  of  the  Grand  Khan,  choice  was  made  of  a  damsel  aged 
seventeen  years  and  extremely  handsome  and  accomplished. 

The  ambassadors  having  left  with  Kagatin — such  was  the  name 
of  the  bride— and  travelled  by  land  for  eight  months,  found  their 
further  progress  obstructed,  and  the  roads  closed  against  them  by 
fresh  wars  that  had  broken  out  among  the  Tartar  princes.  The 
ambassadors  Avere  therefore  constrained  to  return  to  the  court  of 
the  Grand  Khan. 

About  the  time  of  their  reappearance  at  Kambalu  Marco  Polo 
happened  to  arrive  from  a  voyage  he  had  made  with  a  few  vessels 
under  his  orders  to  some  port  of  the  East  Indies — probably  the 
island  of  Sumatra  and  other  islands  of  the  Indian  Archipelago. 
The  three  ambassadors,  having  learned  of  this  voyage  of  Polo,  and 
being  extremely  anxious  to  return  to  their  own  country,  from  which 
they  had  now  been  absent  three  years,  obtained  from  the  Grand 
Kahn  permission  that  Marco,  as  being  well  skilled  in  the  practice 
of  navigation,  might  convey  them  and  the.  bride  by  sea  to  the 
kingdom  of  Argun.  Preparations  were  accordingly  made  for  the 
equipment  of  fourteen  ships,  each  having  four  masts  and  capable 
of  being  navigated  with  nine  sails.  Among  these  vessels  there 
were  at  least  four  or  five  that  had  crews  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  -OP    AMERICA.  355 

or  two  hundred  and  sixty  men.  On  them  were  embarked  the  am- 
bassadors, having  the  queen  under  their  protection,  together  with 
Nicolo,  Maffeo,  and  Marco  Polo. 

After  a  navigation  of  about  three  months  they  arrived  at  an 
island  which  lay  in  a  southerly  direction  named  Java.  Taking 
their  departure  thence,  they  employed  eighteen  months  in  the  In- 
dian seas,  having  had  to  wait  for  the  change  of  the  monsoon,  before 
they  were  enabled  to  reach  the  place  of  their  destination  in  the 
territory  of  King  Argun. 

The  place  where  the  expedition  ultimately  arrived  is  not  directly 
mentioned  in  any  part  of  Marco  Polo's  travels,  but  there  are  strong 
grounds  for  inferring  it  to  have  been  the  celebrated  port  of  Ormus. 

The  fleet  had  left  the  Peho,  or  river  of  Peking,  about  the  begin- 
ning of  1291.  Between  the  day  of  their  sailing  and  that  of  their 
arrival  at  Ormus  they  lost  by  deaths  of  the  crews  of  the  vessels, 
and  others  who  had  embarked,  about  six  hundred  persons ;  and 
of  the  three  ambassadors  only  one  survived  the  voyage,  whilst  of 
all  the  ladies  and  female  attendants  only  one  died.  Th*is  mortality 
was  not  greater  than  might  be  expected  in  vessels  crowded  with 
men  not  accustomed  to  voyages  of  such  duration,  and  who  had 
passed  several  months  at  an  anchorage  in  the  Strait  of  Malacca ; 
and,  although  it  should  have  amounted  to  one-third  of  their  whole 
number,  the  proportions  would  not  have  exceeded  what  was  suf- 
fered by  Lord  Anson  and  other  navigators  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries. 

It  is  impossible,  says  Barrow,  not  to  consider  the  notices  given 
by  this  early  traveller  (Marco  Polo)  as  "curious,  interesting,  and 
valuable,  and,  as  far  as  they  regard  the  empire  of  China,  they 
bear  internal  evidence  of  their  being  generally  correct." 

This  voyage  of  about  fifty-five  hundred  miles  was  made  two 
hundred  years  before  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World.  Had 
Marco  Polo  on  this  occasion  directed  his  course  northward  to  the 
Aleutian  Islands  and  then  westwardly,  he  would  have  reached 
North  America  in  a  much  shorter  distance  and  with  much  less 
delay  and  difficulty  than  he  reached  the  Persian  Gulf;  and,  con- 
sidering this,  and  the  value  placed  upon  furs  and  peltries,  it  is 
probable  that  Japan  and  China,  with  their  immense  resources,  had 
commercial  relations  with  the  New  World  long  before  it  was  dis- 
covered by  Columbus,  or  even  by  the  Norwegians. 

It  is  not  known  who  were  the  first  inhabitants  of  America,  but 
there  are  evidences  that  it  was  inhabited  many  thousands  of  years 
before  the  Norwegian  or  the  Genoa n  landed  upon  its  shores — 
thousands  of  years  before  the  Toltecas,  Chechemecas  and  Aztecas 


356  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

emigrated  from  the  north  to  Anahuac.  It  was  from  the  north 
that  the  several  nations  came,  one  after  another,  to  settle  in  the 
country  of  Anahuac.  It  is  only  through  the  monumental  remains 
of  the  remote  nations  that  inhabited  America  that  any  knowledge 
of  their  progress  in  arts  and  civilization  can  be  acquired.  As  to 
who  they  were  and  whence  they  came  will  remain  probably  for- 
ever unknown.  But  in  approaching  nearer  to  modern  times,  the 
period  of  history,  the  knowledge  of  ancient  nations,  their  man- 
ners, customs,  religion  and  commercial  intercourse  bring  new  aids 
to  investigate  the  relations  of  the  more  recent  inhabitants  of 
America,  found  here  four  hundred  and  ninety-two  years  ago,  with 
those  of  the  Old  World. 

The  Abbe  Brasseur  has  the  following  in  his  "  History  of  the 
Civilized  Nations  of  Mexico:" 

"  After  all  that  we  have  just  shown  we  believe  that  it  would  be 
superfluous  to  analyze  longer  the  numerous  opinions  which  have 
been  hazarded  upon  the  migrations  of  antiquity  to  the  American 
continent.  The  common  resource  of  the  passage  of  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel  led  captives  by  Salmanazar  has  been  employed  by 
a  great  number  of  writers.  We  would  not,  however,  deny,  in  a 
positive  manner,  that  there  were  not  Israelites  in  America  before 
the  fifteenth  century  ;  we  are  persuaded  to  the  contrary,  only  we 
reject  every  system  which  has  for  its  aim  to  make  the  ancient 
American  civilization  the  special  apanage  of  any  one  nation  what- 
soever, African,  European  or  Asiatic.  We  have  had,  besides,  too 
often  an  opportunity  of  admiring  among  the  Indian  population 
of  Mexico  or  of  Central  America  Jewish  or  Egyptian  types.  More 
than  once,  likewise,  we  have  observed  in  these  countries  profiles 
like  to  that  of  the  King  of  Juda,  sculptured  among  the  ruins  of 
Karnac,  and  seen  Indians  in  their  proud  nudity  resembling  the 
beautiful  Egyptian  statues  of  the  museums  of  the  Louvre  or  of 
Turin.  A  crowd  of  foreigners,  French,  Belgian,  German,  and 
English,  have  remarked  with  as  much  surprise  as  I,  in  certain 
Gautemalian  villages,  the  Arabic  costumes  of  the  men  and  the 
Jewish  customs  of  the  women  of  Palin  and  of  the  borders  of  lake 
Amatitlan  as  perfect  and  as  beautiful  as  in  the  pictures  of  Horace 
Vernet.  We  will  not  enter  further  into  the  system  of  Ordony  and 
of  Juarros,  who  alike  give  the  Egyptians  and  the  Phoenicians  for 
the  ancestors  of  the  Toltecas  and  the  Mexicans  as  well  as  for  the 
founders  of  the  Planque.  These  systems  anciently  adopted  by 
Siguenza,  whose  manuscripts  we  have  seen  at  Mexico,  and  by 
other  writers,  are  not  supported  by  any  positive  historic  data. 
The  passages  of  Diodorus,  of  Sicily,  and  of  Aristotle  on  the  sub- 


CHAP.  XXXV.1  OF    AMERICA.  357 

J  • 

jectof  the  Carthaginian  expeditions,  although  very  curious,  and 
giving  an  appearance  of  foundation  to  these  systems,  are  not  con- 
clusive. We,  therefore,  will  not  reject  the  possibility  of  the  voy- 
ages of  the  ancients  to  America.  Humboldt  quotes  on  this  subject 
an  extremely  curious  passage  from  Plutarch.  It  is  a  query  in 
terms  perfectly  clear  and  precise  of  a  great  transatlantic  continent 
and  of  a  mysterious  foreigner,  arrived  from  this  distant  country 
of  Carthage,  where  he  dwelt  several  years  about  two  or  three  cen- 
turies before  the  vulgar  era. 

But  none  of  these  conjectures  are  equivalent  to  the  historic 
proofs  which  the  Scandinavians  have  preserved  of  their  navigation 
to  Greenland  and  other  parts  of  the  American  continent."  As 
the  facts  in  regard  to  the  important  events  have  a  close  relation  to 
the  populating  of  North  America  and  to  the  probable  ancient  in- 
tercourse between  the  two  hemispheres,  it  is  proper  to  give  here  a 
particular  account  of  them. 

The  distance  between  Norway  and  Greenland  is  about  eleven 
hundred  and  fifty  miles,*  and  within  this  distance  are  two  clusters 
of  islands,  and  the  great  island  called  Iceland,  which  is  three  hun- 
dred miles  in  length  from  east  to  west,  and  two  hundred  in  its  great- 
est breadth,  having  an  area  of  thirty-nine  thousand  square  miles. 
This  island  is  five  hundred  miles  from  Scotland,  six  hundred  from 
Norway,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  from  Greenland.  It  was  dis- 
covered in  the  year  860  by  a  Norwegian  sea-rover  named  Noddodr, 
who  was  accidentally  driven  upon  the  coast  while  on  a  voyage  to 
the  Faroe  Islands.  A  few  years  afterwards  a  Swede  named  Gar- 
dar  circumnavigated  the  island.  In  the  year  874  it  was  colonized 
from  Norway,  the  leader  of  the  emigrants  being  Ingolf.  In  the 
course  of  half  a  century  its  coasts  were  well-peopled,  and  among 
the  population  were  several  Scotch  and  Irish  families. 

Beside  the  great  island  of  Iceland  there  are  two  clusters  of 
islands,  the  Shetland  Islands  and  the  Faroe  Islands.  The  former 
are  forty-four  leagues  west  of  Bergen,  the  nearest  point  of  Conti- 
nental Europe.  Foula,  one  of  the  islands  of  this  cluster,  seventeen 
miles  west  by  south  of  the  nearest  part  of  its  own  mainland,  is  the 

*  As  the  distance  of  Iceland  from  Norway  is  six  hundred  miles,  and  the  island 
three  hundred  miles  in  length  from  east  to  west,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  from 
Greenland,  the  sum  of  these  distances,  eleven  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  is  proba- 
bly the  distance  from  Ber{(en,  in  Norway, .  to  Greenland.  The  Norwegians  at 
that  time  possessed  the  Orkney  Islands,  to  the  north  of  Scotland,  from  which 
islands  it  is  probable  the  distance  to  Greenland  would  be  ten  hundred  and  fifty 
miles,  Scotland  being  one  hundred  miles  nearer  to  Iceland  than  to  Norway,  the 
Orkney  Islands  being  still  nearer  than  Scotland. 


358  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

Ultima  Thule  of  the  ancients.  The  Scandinavians,  from  whom 
descended  the  principal  inhabitants  of  these  islands,  landed  here 
probably  at  or  before  the  sixth  century,  and  found  shelter  in  the 
numerous  voies  and  tortuous  friths  for  their  piratical  vessels.  Re- 
mains of  the  forts  of  the  Vikings  still  abound  in  these  islands. 

The  Faroe  Islands  are  about  the  same  distance  from  the  Shet- 
land Islands  that  these  are  from  Norway.  The  appearance  of  the 
Faroe  Islands,  whether  approached  in  fine  or  bad  weather,  is  in- 
conceivably grand.  Nothing  can  exceed  the  sublimity  of  the 
scenery.  . 

The  Faroe  Islands,  like  the  Shetland  and  Orkney,  are  composed 
of  a  few  large  and  thinly-peopled  islands.  The  surface  is  almost 
everywhere  h'illy,  with  bold  headlands  and  heights  over  two 
thousand  feet  in  Stromo  and  Ostero,  culminating  with  the  Sclatta- 
relindur  (twenty-seven  hundred  and  fifty-six  feet  in  height),  on 
the  north  coast  of  Ostero.  The  islands  are  largely  volcanic.  The 
people  of  the  Faroe  Islands,  which  were  discovered  by  the  Norwe- 
gians in  the  ninth  century,  are  of  Norwegian  origin. 

From  Iceland  rises,  to  the  height  of  four  thousand  five  hundred 
and  thirty-two  feet,  the  famous  volcano,  Heckla,  which  has  ejected 
ashes  to  the  height  of  sixteen  thousand  feet,  and  volcanic  dust  has 
frequently  been  borne  by  the  upper  air-currents  so  as  to  fall  upon 
the  Faroe  Islands,  and  has  even  been  carried  in  considerable  quan- 
tities as  far  as  Norway  on  the  one  side  and  the  north  of  Scotland 
on  the  other. 

Volcanic  mountains  appear  beyond  the  limits  of  the  uplands  in 
the  peninsulas.  One  of  the  loftiest  summits  is  the  Snaefells-Jokull 
(four  thousand  seven  hundred  and  two  feet  in  height),  a  perfect 
cone,  at  the  extremity  of  the  peninsula  on  the  north  side  of  Fax  a 
Bay,  its  snow-crest  forming  a  prominent  landmark. 

On  the  east  side  are  several  peaks  over  three  thousand  feet  in 
height,  whose  sharp  outlines  are  visible  at  a  great  distance,  tower- 
ing above  the  surrounding  fogs.  The  Oraefa-Jokull,  the  culmi- 
nating point  of  the  island,  is  six  thousand  four  hundred  and  ten 
feet  high. 

The  mean  axis  of  the  volcanic  zone  runs  from  the  east  side  of 
the  Vatna-Jokull  table-land  westwards  to  the  Reykjanes  headland. 
Along  this  line  are  several  craters,  of  which  the  best  known  is 
Hekla,  or  "  Cloak  Mountain  "  (five  thousand  and  ninety-five  feet 
high),  so  named  from  the  clouds  of  vapor  in  which  its  crest  is  so 
frequently  wrapped. 

The  Katla  or  Kotlugja,  southernmost  of  the  Icelandic  volcanoes, 
and  thirty-six  miles  sputheast  of  Hekla,  with  which  it  is  often 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  OF    AMERICA.  359 

confounded,  has  vomited  ashes  and  torrents  of  water  fifteen  times 
since  the  year  900,  but  no  lava  within  the  historic  period.  In 
recent  years  there  have  been  frequent  eruptions  on  the  north  side 
of  the  Vatna-Jokull,  the  most  violent  of  which  occurred  on  March 
29th,  1875,  when  the  snowfields  on  the  east  side  of  the  island  were 
covered  with  a  layer  of  pumice  reduced  to  impalpable  dust.  To- 
wards the  east  the  heavens  became  almost  pitch-dark  at  noon,  and 
a  strong  westerly  gale  wafted  the  ashes  across  the  Norwegian 
snows  and  even  to  the  neighborhood  of  Stockholm,  eleven  hun- 
dred and  eighty  miles  from  the  centre  of  activity — the  greatest 
distance  on  record. 

Although  its  northernmost  peninsulas  project  into  the  Arctic 
Zone,  Iceland  is  not  the  last  land  of  the  North  Atlantic.  The  pla- 
teau on  which  it  rests  is  continued  northeastward  towards  the 
Norwegian  waters,  terminating  with  a  sort  of  headland  which 
rises  above  the  surface  to  form  the  elongated  island  of  Jan  Mayer, 
immediately  beyond  the  Beerenberg  or  Bear's  Mount,  rising  to  a 
height  of  six  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy-two  feet.  At 
its  northeast  end  the  water  suddenly  sinks  to  great  depths.* 

It  is  thus  seen  that  these  islands  were  as  stations,  and  their  tow- 
ering mountains  as  sea-marks  for  the  voyagers  on  their  way  to  the 
western  world.  The  dust  of  the  volcano  made  known  to  Scotland 
and  to  Norway  the  existence  of  a  land  in  the  far  west,  and  the 
flames  of  Hekla  served  as  a  pharos  to  light  them  to  it.  It  was 
probably  by  degrees  that  they  advanced  to  it,  first  to  the  Shetland, 
then  to  the  Faroe  cluster,  and  thence  to  Iceland. 

After  Iceland  had  been  inhabited  nearly  a  century  by  a  hardy, 
daring  and  skilful  seafaring  people-,  its.  inhabitants  pushed  their 
discoveries  still  further  to  the  west,  and  in  972  reached  Greenland, 
where  a  colony  was  established  which  subsisted  there  until  the 
fifteenth  century,  when,  or  about  which  time,  a  material  change 
for  the  worse  occurred  in  the  climate  of  Iceland,  where,  it  is  said, 
corn  formerly  grew,  by  which  change  Greenland  was  occupied  by 
an  unusual  accumulation  of  ice.  After  this  nothing  more  was 
heard  of  the  Greenland  colonies.  How  they  perished  is  not 
known. 

The  old  Icelandic  Sagas  state  explicitly  that  colonies  of  North- 
men existed  on  the  shores  of  Greenland  from  the  close  of  the  tenth 
to  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century.  From  that  period  to 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  nothing  more  was  heard  of  them. 
But  in  1721  a  Norwegian  clergyman  prevailed  on  the  King  of 

*  Elisee  Beclus. 


360  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

Denmark  to  form  a  new  settlement  on  the  west  coast  of  Green- 
land. Since  the  establishment  of  this  colony  numerous  vestiges  of 
the  ancient  one  have  been  discovered — urns,  implements,  frag- 
ments of  church-bells,  Runic  inscriptions  and  ruined  edifices. 
These  numerous  vestiges  of  the  former  colonies  scattered  along 
the  east  coast  of  Baffin's  Bay  are  doubly  interesting  and  impor- 
tant, for  they  not  only  confirm  in  the  most  striking  manner  the 
authenticity  of  the  Sagas  in  regard  to  Greenland,  but  warrant  the 
conclusion  that  those  that  tell  of  the  discovery  of  the  American 
continent  are  equally  trustworthy.* 

It  was  from  Greenland  that  the  continent  of  North  America  was 
discovered  about  the  year  1000,  when  Leif,  son  of  the  Norwegian 
Eerek,  surnamed  the  Red,  who  had  discovered  Greenland,  fitted 
out  in  Greenland  a  vessel  with  every  requisite  for  a  long  voyage. 
Leif  proceeded  southward,  and  on  the  coast  beyond  Cape  Cod 
erected  some  booths,  where  he  spent  the  winter.  The  accounts 
given  of  this  locality,  which  he  called  Vinland,  Wineland,  suits 
the  coast  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  island  Martha's  Vineyard, 
on  the  coast  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

After  passing  the  winter  here,  and  loading  their  vessel  with 
timber  and  their  boat  with  grapes,  they  sailed  in  the  spring  for 
Greenland. 

In  this  account  of  this  expedition  of  Leif  there  is  no  mention 
of  Indians  having  been  seen.  But  when  Thorwald,  the  brother 
of  Leif,  visited,  in  the  year  1002,  the  same  place,  he  went  out  in 
the  summer  of  1004  to  explore  the  coast  to  the  eastward,  and, 
coming  to  a  finely-wooded  headland,  went  on  shore  with  all  his 
followers.  As  they  were  preparing  to  go  on  board  they  observed 
three  canoes,  or  seal-skin  boats,  drawn  up  on  the  beach,  under  each 
of  which  were  three  Skraellings,  as  they  were  called  by  the  North- 
men. Of  the  nine  they  killed  eight,  one  escaping  in  his  canoe.* 
It  appears  that  then  they  fell  into  a  profound  sleep  on  shore,  from 
which  they  were  aroused  by  one  of  their  company,  who  had  ob- 
served a  fleet  of  canoes  approaching.  Upon  the  alarm  they  has- 
tened to  their  vessel.  "  Shortly  afterward  they  saw  a  number  of 
canoes  filled  with  Skrsellings  coming  from  the  interior  of  the  bay 
against  them."  So  violent  was  their  assault  that,  to  protect 
themselves,  the  Norsemen  raised  battle-screens  on  the  ship's  side, 
but  the  SkraBllings,  after  discharging  volleys  of  arrows  and  shout- 
ing for  awhile,  left.  Thorwald,  however,  had  been  mortally  wounded 
by  an  arrow  under  the  arm. 

*  Mallet's  "Northern  Antiquities." 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  .    OP    AMERICA.  361 

This  appears  to  have  been  the  first  encounter  between  Euro- 
peans and  the  natives  of.  North  America,  and  shows  that  the 
country,  when  first  visited  from  the  eastern  hemisphere,  nearly  a 
thousand  years  ago,  was  inhabited  by  a  people  who  appear  to 
have  been  much  like  those  who  now  inhabit  Alaska. 

It  is  known,  from  ancient  manuscripts,  that  a  custom  prevailed 
among  the  Norsemen  throughout  the  later  centuries  of  paganism, 
in  Scandinavia,  of  burying  men  of  note  with  their  ships.  Divers 
ship-tombs  have  been  discovered,  and  the  vessels  found  very  con- 
siderable in  size,  ranging  from  boats  to  sea-going  ships.  In  the 
year  1880  there  was  found  at  Gokstad,  Norway,  in  a  mound  where, 
according  to  tradition,  a  king  had  been  buried  with  his  treasures, 
a  ship  in  excellent  preservation,  which  was  safely  gotten  out  by 
the  aid  of  the  Antiquarian  Society  in  Christiania.  Here,  at  last, 
the  actual  character  of  vessels  belonging  to  the  Viking  period  was 
brought  to  light. 

This  ship  was  not  quite  new  when  it  was  interred,  as  some  wear 
can  be  found  on  the  rudder  and  oars.  It  was  built  of  oak,  and 
measured,  on  the  keel,  sixty -six  feet ;  from  outside  to  outside, 
between  fore-and-aft,  seventy-eight  feet ;  amidship  it  is  sixteen 
and  one-half  feet  broad,  and  at  the  same  point  four  feet  in  depth, 
from  top  of  bulwark  to  the  keel :  each  planking  has  ornamental 
mouldings. 

Just  as  in  the  Roman  ships,  there  are  port-holes  in  its  sides  to 
receive  the  oars.  They  are  set  in  the  third  plank  from  the  top 
and  midway  between  the  knees.  There  are  sixteen  in  each  side, 
through  which  slits  are  cut  to  pass  the  oar-blades.  To  prevent 
the  influx  from  the  sea  through  the  ports,  when  there  was  no  row- 
ing, they  were  protected  on  the  inside  by  a  circular  oak  shutter. 
The  mast,  of  which  there  was  only  one,  was  set  in  an  opening  in 
a  large  oak  block  fixed  above  the  midframes  of  the  vessel.  The 
sail  was  of  a  square  form,  made  of  frieze,  or  common  canvas. 

"  The  olden  times  knew  of  only  one  kind  of  a  rudder,  which  had 
its  fixed  position  somewhat  before  the  stern-post,  on  the  right  side 
of  the  vessel.  The  helm  consisted  of  a  plank  in  the  shape  of  an 
oar  with  a  wide  blade,  which  a  little  way  down  was  fixed  to  the 
ship  by  means  of  a  rope,  whilst  its  round  upper  neck  was  caught 
by  a  grummet,  and  a  square  hole  in  a  right  angle  with  the  blade 
was  made  for  the  tiller  in  the  upper  part  of  the  neck.  The  rud- 
der was  also  slightly  mounted  with  iron." 

Every  ship  had  its  own  boat,  which,  when  the  vessel  put  to  sea, 
was  taken  on  board.  The  crew  consisted  of  a  master,  mate,  and 
the  oarsmen.  There  was  no  deck  to  the  vessel. 


362  THE   INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

When  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  was  prepared  in 
celebration  of  the  discovery  of  America  by  Chistopher  Columbus, 
the  pride  and  patriotism  of  the  Norwegians  were  aroused,  and 
they  determined  to  send  to  this  Exposition  a  model  of  the  old 
Viking  ship  of  Gokstad  [22],  and  demonstrate  to  the  world,  by 
their  own  daring  achievement,  how  their  ancestors  discovered 
America  nearly  a  thousand  years  ago. 

Captain  Magnus  Andersen,  with  whom  originated  the  idea  of 
sailing  a  Viking  ship  across  the  Atlantic,  applied  to  some  leading 
men  in  Norway  for  their  assistance,  and  a  few  gentlemen  in  Chris- 
tiania  were  elected  a  committee  to  make  a  national  undertaking 
of  it,  and  they  issued  invitations  all  over  Norway  to  support  the 
scheme.  Thus  support  came  from  every  part  of  the  world  where 
Norwegians  were  residing;  rich  and  poor,  high  and  low,  old  and 
young,  even  the  little  school-children  gave  their  saved-up  cents ; 
in  fact,  all  gave  their  share  with  a  cheerful  heart.  The  ship  was 
built  at  Sandefiord,  true  in  every  detail  and  dimensions  to  the  old 
ship,  and,  once  on  the  water,  her  standard  went  to  the  top,  flying 
the  name  of  "Viking,"  whilst  hundreds  of  men  were  ready  to 
become  one  of  her  crew. 

The  voyage  of  the  Viking  from  Bergen,  in  Norway,  to  New 
London,  in  the  State  of  Connecticut,  deserves  a  particular  notice, 
as  it  illustrates  the  navigation  of  antiquity,  and  proves  not  only 
the  ability  of  vessels  of  that  period  to  make  long  voyages,  but 
the  actual  fact  of  their  achievement.  The  following  is  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  most  important  part  of  the  particulars  of  this  re- 
markable voyage : 

In  the  month  of  April,  when  the  Viking  left  Christiania,  the 
capital  of  Norway,  all  the  residents  were  down  by  the  fiord  to  bid 
the  ship  and  her  twelve  men  on  board  "  farewell " — best  wishes 
of  a  "  safe  voyage,  and  kind  regards  to  our  brethren  in  America," 
rang  through  the  air,  with  no  end  of  cheers  from  the  natives  on 
the  surrounding  hillsides — a  sight  carrying  with  it,  as  it  did,  such 
intense  feeling  of  joyful,  national  pride  never  to  be  forgotten  by 
any  of  those  who  witnessed  it.  Yet  the  same  thing  occurred  at 
every  place  where  the  Viking  called  on  her  way  round  the  coast 
to  Bergen,  and  it  certainly  reached  its  climax  that  beautiful  Sun- 
day morning,  the  30th  of  April  (1893),  when  the  Viking  left  her 
moorings  at  the  capital  to  go  to  sea. 

A  fresh  northwesterly  wind  carried  the  ship  swiftly  along,  and 
soon  brought  her  out  of  sight  of  land.  The  next  day  brought 
changeable  wind,  with  rain,  which  continued  on  for  a  couple  of 
days,  until  on  the  5th  of  May,  after  having  passed  the  Shetland 


CHAP.  XXXV.]  OP   AMERICA.  363 

Islands,  a  southerly  gale  sprung  up,  with  very  heavy  sea.  The  sails 
had  to  be  reefed,  and  pumping  or  bailing  was  kept  up  all  day  and 
night,  as  the  vessel  was  taking  great  quantities  of  water  forward, 
at  times,  especially  about  noon,  when  the  sea  had  become  ex- 
tremely boisterous,  and  threatened  to  fill  the  ship;  but  she  behaved 
splendidly  on  the  tops  of  the  mighty  waves,  and  proved  herself  a 
good  sea-boat,  well  worthy  the  confidence  that  had  been  placed 
in  her.  The  rudder  on  the  side  was  in  every  way  most  satisfac- 
tory, and  during  the  storm  it  was  proven  beyond  a  doubt  that  its 
action  was  as  perfect  as  any  of  our  modern  steering  gears,  and  the 
men  at  the  rudder  had  no  difficulty  in  handling  it.  The  follow- 
ing day  the  storm  was  settling  down,  and  a  fresh  southerly  wind 
filled  the  Viking's  sails,  while  the  sea  had  quieted  down  to  such 
an  extent  that  hardly  a  drop  of  water  got  on  board.  On  Monday, 
the  8th  of  May,  the  wind  changed  to  northerly,  with  a  sea  rolling 
heavily.  The  next  evening  a  strong  gale  of  wind  prevailed  with 
a  heavy  sea.  The  wind  had  changed  in  the  morning  to  south- 
west, and  kept  on  growing  in  strength,  until  at  eleven  o'clock  it 
became  necessary  to  reef,  and  at  noon  a  terrific  storm  was  raging, 
with  mountain-high  seas,  which  seemed  to  reach  a  climax  at  four 
o'clock,  when  sails  were  made  fast,  and  the  sea-anchor  had  to  be 
put  out,  and  by  the  aid  of  oil  bags  the  ship  was  kept  steady  in  the 
wild  play  of  the  waves.  Towards  evening  the  storm  began  to 
calm  down,  to  the  delight  of  all  on  board,  as  little  rest  had  been 
found  during  the  day  in  tfaeir  soaked  clothes.  About  noon  the 
next  day  the  sea-anchor  could  be  hauled  on  board,  and  the  square 
sail  with  three  reefs  hoisted  to  hurry  the  Viking  along  before  a 
southerly  wind,  through  the  still  somewhat  heavy  sea. 

During  the  following  week  the  Viking  experienced  compara- 
tively fair  weather,  and  everything  went  on  splendidly.  The  17th 
of  May,  the  Norwegian  independence  day,  was  a  grand  day  on 
board.  Favored  with  the  finest  weather  that  could  be  desired, 
the  ship  was  doing  her  ten  miles  (per  hour?),  and  everybody  on 
board  was  in  the  best  of  humor.  The  17th  of  May  in  Norway 
is  what  the  4th  of  July  is  to  Americans. 

Nothing  important  occurred  until  Sunday,  the  21st  of  May, 
when,  just  as  dinner  was  served  out,  the  man  on  the  lookout  re- 
ported "  A  steamer  ahead."  The  steamer  proved  to  be  the  Ameri- 
thia,  of  Glasgow,  whose  commander,  Captain  Crayton,  courteously 
undertook  to  forward  the  letters  and  telegrams  of  the  Viking. 

The  next  few  days  the  wind  varied,  partly  accompanied  by  fogs, 
and  on  the  24th  of  May  the  steamship  Accides,  of  Glasgow,  was 
passing,  exchanging  signals.  Fog  and  icebergs  were  now  begin- 


364  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XXXV. 

ning  to  trouble  the  Viking,  and  the  thermometer  was  several 
times  approaching  zero,  but  fortunately  everything  went  all  right 
until  Saturday,  the  28th  of  May,  when  Cape  Spear  was  sighted. 
A  towboat  from  St.  Johns  came  out  to  the  Viking,  which  had  been 
taken  for  a  dismasted  schooner.  The  captain  of  the  tug  (Mr.  Cross) 
most  obligingly  undertook  to  mail  the  Viking's  letters  and  tele- 
grams. On  the  following  Monday  Cape  Race  was  passed,  twenty- 
nine  days  after  leaving  Bergen. 

The  next  two  weeks  went  by  slowly,  on  account  of  very  little 
wind,  and  it  was  not  until  Sunday,  the  llth  of  June,  that  land 
was  sighted,  south  of  Cape  Cod. 

Words  cannot  express  what  the  men  on  board  the  Viking  felt 
as  they  now  for  the  first  time  sighted  the  United  States.  History 
came  back  to  them  in  all  its  vividness ;  Leif  Erickson's  deeds 
flashed  through  their  minds,  and  there  he  stood,  all  alive,  before 
them,  and  suddenly  they  knew  they  had  been  the  means  of  prov- 
ing what  was  recorded  in  the  Sagas  was  actually  correct  and  true, 
and  what  they  had  done  was  only  what  their  forefathers  had  done 
before  them. 

In  a  strong  wind  and  with  all  sails  set  the  Viking  commenced 
to  beat  down  the  coast  in  company  with  a  number  of  coasting 
vessels,  and  it  did  not  take  long  to  find  out  her  superior  sailing 
qualities,  as  she  was  gaining  on  many  of  her  companions,  who  were 
wondering  how  this  copy  of  a  thousand-years-old  ship  could  be 
such  a  seaworthy  vessel  that  she  could  beat  the  modern  construc- 
tions in  sailing,  even  with  the  wind  ahead.  The  following  Monday 
morning  the  Viking  passed  through  Nantucket  Shoals  and  down 
through  Vineyard  Sound,  which  was  passed  in  the  thickest  of  fogs 
and  during  the  night,  and  it  was  only  by  the  aid  of  soundings 
and  the  fog-horn  that  the  "  1893  Viking  "  safely  found  her  way,  so 
that. she,  on  the  13th  of  June,  could  sight  the  Newport  land,  and 
the  same  afternoon  she  arrived  at  New  London  harbor,  where  her 
anchor  was  dropped  at  5.30.  As  the  anchor  went,  there  is  no  doubt 
a  feeling  of  ease  arose  in  every  man's  breast  on  board  the  Viking, 
as  now  was,  practically,  the  dangerous  part  of  their  voyage  at  an 
end,  and,  taken  on  the  whole,  their  task  had  not  been  of  such  a 
terrible  nature  as  had  been  painted  by  most  people  at  the  outset. 
It  is  true  every  seeker  of  comfort  will  not  find  much  on  board  the 
Viking  to  gratify  his  cravings  for  what  he  terms  necessities  of  life, 
but  the  Vikings  were,  nevertheless,  very  well  pleased  with  the  sim- 
ple and  modest  luxuries  given  them. 

Their  sleeping  arrangements  proved  most  satisfactory,  though 
there  was  no  room  for  any  bunks  to  be  fitted  up,  and  each  man 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  365 

had  to  look  out  for  his  own  place  where  to  lie  down  to  rest.  His 
bed  consisted  of  an  oil-skin  bag,  into  which  was  put  a  reindeer- 
skin,  and  on  the  top  of  this  was  placed  a  bag  made  of  three  blan- 
kets, into  which  the  man  crept,  thus  splendidly  protected  against 
cold  and  water. 

Even  in  the  bad  weather  they  experienced  across  the  ocean,  it 
was  no  difficulty  for  the  steward  to  have  all  meals  ready  at  the 
fixed  hours  and  served  in  first-class  condition,  and  what  certainly 
speaks  for  the  cook  is  that  he,  in  fine  weather,  gave  all  on  board  a 
treat  by  baking  fresh  bread. 

From  New  London  all  the  way  up  to  Chicago  the  Viking  met 
with  one  endless  greeting  of  welcome.  To  pencil  all  the  recep- 
tions, banquets  and  honors  bestowed  upon  Captain  Andersen  and 
his  men  would  fill  volumes,  and  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  never 
did  any  nation  receive  a  foreign  representative  more  royally  than 
the  welcome  the  American  people  extended  to  the  little  Viking. 
It  may  truly  be  said  that  never  before  did  Norse  blood  make  such 
a  claim  on  its  descendants  as  when  the  Viking  ship  arrived  at  and 
passed  through  American  waters.* 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

Ancient  Navigation — Navies,  Vessels,  Voyages,  Crews — The  Shipwreck  of  St. 
Paul — Egyptian  and  Indian  Ships,  their  Construction  and  Navigation — 
Carthaginian  Navigation — Ancient  Naval  Architecture. 

FOURTEEN  hundred  years  before  the  voyage  in  which  Leif  Erick- 
son  discovered  America  the  ancients  constructed  vessels  similar  to 
those  of  the  Vikings,  and  others  much  larger  and  stronger. 

It  is  the  general  opinion  that  in  the  Homeric  age  sailors  did  not 
venture  into  the  open  sea,  but  that  such  was  really  done  is  clear 
from  the  fact  that  Homer  makes  Ulysses  say  that  he  had  lost  sight 
of  land,  and  saw  nothing  but  the  sky  and  sea,  although  on  the 
whole  it  may  be  admitted  that  even  down  to  the  later  historical 
times  the  navigation  of  the  ancients  was  confined  to  coasting  along 
the  shore. 

After  the  times  of  the  Trojan  war  navigation — and  with  it  the 
art  of  ship-building — must  have  become  generally  improved,  on 
account  of  the  establishment  of  the  numerous  colonies  on  foreign 
coasts  and  the  increased  commercial  intercourse  with  these  colo- 

*  "Viking,"  by  Alfred  A.  Holm. 


366  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

nies  and  other  foreign  countries:  The  practice  of  piracy,  which 
was  during  this  period  carried  on  to  a  great  extent,  not  only  be- 
tween Greeks  and  foreigners,  but  also  among  the  Greeks  them- 
selves, must  likewise  have  contributed  to  the  improvement  of 
ships  and  of  navigation,  although  no  particulars  are  mentioned. 
In  Greece  itself  the  Corinthians  were  the  first  who  brought  the  art 
of  shipbuilding  nearest  to  the  point  at  which  we  find  it  in  the 
time  of  Thucydides,  and  they  were  the  first  to  introduce  ships 
with  three  ranks  of  rowers.  About  the  year  700  B.C.  Ameinocles, 
the  Corinthian,  to  whom  this  invention  is  ascribed,  made  the  Sa- 
mians  acquainted  with  it.  They  must  have  been  preceded  by 
biremes.  About  the  time  of  Cyrus  the  Phocians  introduced  long, 
sharp-keeled  ships.  These  belonged  to  the  class  of  long  war-ships, 
and  had  fifty  rowers,  twenty-five  on  each  side  of  the  ship,  who 
sat  in  one  row.  Before  this  time  vessels  with  large,  round  or  flat 
bottoms  had  been  used  exclusively  by  the  lonians,  in  Asia.  At 
this  period  most  Greeks  seem  to  have  adopted  the  long  ships,  with 
only  one  rank  of  rowers  on  each  side.  Their  names  varied  accord- 
ingly as  they  had  fifty,  thirty  or  even  a  smaller  number  of  rowers.* 

The  Athenians  had  intimate  commercial  relations  with  some  of 
the  cities  on  or  near  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus,  and  Herodotus 
himself,  who  was  born  484  years  B.  c.,  visited  the  Palus  Meotis,  or 
Sea  of  Azof,  by  passing  through  the  Pontus  Euxinus,  or  Black  Sea, 
which  shows  how  extensive  was  the  navigation  of  the  Greeks  at 
this  remote  period. 

"  The  first  Greek  people  who  acquired  a  navy  of  importance  were 
the  Corinthians,  Samians  and  Phocians.  About  the  time  of  Cyrus 
and  Cambyces  the  Corinthian  triremes  were  generally  adopted  by 
the  Sicilian  tyrants  and  by  the  Corcyrans,  who  soon  acquired  the 
most  powerful  navies  among  the  Greeks.  In  other  parts  of  Greece 
the  most  common  vessels  about  this  time  were  long  ships,  with 
only  one  rank  of  rowers.  Athens  did  not  obtain  a  fleet  of  any 
importance  until  the  time  of  Themistocles  (514  to  449  B.  c.),  who 
persuaded  them  to  build  two  hundred  triremes.  But  even  then 
ships  were  not  provided  with  complete  decks  covering  the  whole 
of  the  vessel ;  a  complete  deck  appears  to  have  been  an  invention 
of  later  times.  Pliny  ascribes  it  to  the  Thasians,  and  before  this 
event  vessels  had  only  small  decks  at  the  poop  and  the  prow."f 

The  various  kinds  of  ships  used  by  the  Greeks  are  classed  by 
Pliny  according  to  the  number  of  ranks  of  rowers  employed  in 
them,  as  moneres,  biremes,  triremes,  quadriremes,  quinquiremes, 

*  Anthon. 

f  Homer,  907  B.  c.,  mentions  decked  vessels. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  367 

etc.  All  these  appear  to  have  been  constructed  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, and  it  is  more  convenient  to  divide  them  into  ships  of  war 
and  ships  of  burden.  The  latter  were  not  calculated  for  quick 
movement  or  rapid  sailing,  but  to  carry  the  greatest  possible 
quantity  of  goods.  Although  they  were  not  without  rowers,  yet 
the  chief  means  by  which  they  were  propelled  were  their  sails. 

The  most  common  ships  of  war,  after  they  had  been  generally 
introduced,  were  the  triremes.  Triremes  were  divided  into  two 
classes,  the  one  consisting  of  real  men-of-war,  which  were  swift 
sailing-vessels,  and  the  other  of  transports,  either  for  soldiers  or  for 
horses.  Ships  of  this  class  were  not  used  in  battle  except  in  cases 
of  necessity.  The  ordinary  size  of  the  war-galley  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  the  average  number  of  men  engaged  in  it,  in- 
cluding the  crew  and  marines,  was  two  hundred,  to  whom  on  some 
occasions  as  many  as  thirty  epibatae*  were  added.  The  rapidity 
with  which  these  war-galleys  sailed  appears  to  have  been  so  great 
that  even  we  cannot  look  upon  it  without  astonishment  when  we 
find  that  an  ancient  trireme  nearly  equalled  that  of  a  modern 
steamboat. 

Vessels  of  more  than  three  banks  of  oars  were  not  constructed 
in  Greece  until  about  the  year  400  B.  c.,  when  Dionysius  of  Syra- 
cuse built  the  first  quinquireme,  with  which  he  had  probably  be- 
come acquainted  through  the  Carthaginians,  since  the  invention 
of  these  vessels  is  ascribed  to  them.  After  the  time  of  Alexander 
the  Great  the  use  of  vessels  with  four,  five,  and  more  ranks  of 
rowers  became  very  general,  and  it  is  well  known  from  Polybius 
that  the  first  Punic  war  was  chiefly  carried  on  with  quinquiremes. 
Ships  with  twelve,  thirty,  and  even  forty  ranks  of  rowers  appear 
to  have  been  mere  curiosities,  and  did  not  come  into  common  use. 

In  the  year  356  B.  c.  the  Athenians  continued  to  use  nothing 
but  triremes,  but  in  330  B.  c.  the  Republic  had  already  a  number 
of  quadriremes.  The  first  quinquiremes  at  Athens  are  mentioned 
in  a  document  belonging  to  the  year  325  B.  c. 

Boekh  has  calculated  that  each  trireme  on  an  average  had  one 
hundred  and  seventy  rowers.  In  a  quinquireme,  during  the  first 
Punic  war,  the  average  number  of  rowers  was  three  hundred ;  in 
later  times  we  find  even  as  many  as  four  hundred. 

Most  ancient  ships  had  but  one  sail,  which  was  attached  with 
the  yard  to  the  great  mast.  In  a  trireme,  too,  one  sail  might 

*  Epibatse  were  entirely  distinct  from  the  rowers,  and  also  from  the  land  sol- 
diers. They  were,  probably,  heavily-armed  men.  They  were  appointed  to  de- 
fend the  vessels  in  the  Athenian  navy. 


368  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

be  sufficient,  but  the  trierarch*  might  nevertheless  add  a  second. 
As  each  of  the  two  masts  of  a  trireme  had  two  sailyards,  it  follows 
that  each  mast  had  two  sails,  one  of  which  was  placed  lower  than 
the  other.  The  sails  of  the  Attic  war-galleys,  and  of  most  ancient 
ships  in  general,  were  of  a  square  form.f 

When  we  consider  the  remote  time  at  which  Crete  and  Cyprus 
were  settled,  and  the  relation  of  these  islands  to  Egypt,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  in  the  earliest  times  of  ancient  history  there 
were  communications  of  these  two  islands  with  the  great  centre  of 
ancient  civilization  in  the  West  of  the  Old  World,  and  that  even 
at  that  period  navigators  sailed  from  these  islands  through  the 
Mediterranean  beyond  the  sight  of  land  until  they  reached  their 
destination  on  the  mainland. 

The  Phoenicians  founded  Carthage  at  what  would  have  been 
considered  in  those  days  an  enormous  distance  from  the  mother 
country.  It  is  hardly  to  be  believed  that  such  a  maritime  nation, 
that  had  circumnavigated  Africa,  crawled  along  the  western  and 
southern  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  to  reach  their  colony  or  to 
reach  Tarsis. 

The  Carthaginians  had  colonies  on  the  island  of  Malta,  on 
Sicily,  Sardinia,  the  Balearic  Isles,  besides  on  the  coast  of  Spain. 
To  reach  these  colonies  the  Carthaginians  necessarily  launched 
forth  into  the  Mediterranean  and  sailed  direct  to  their  destination. 

Egypt  and  Mauritania  were  the  granaries  of  Rome.  From  Al- 
exandria and  Carthage  this  grain  was  transported  direct  through 
the  Mediterranean  to  its  destination,  and  necessarily  the  vessels 
must  have  sailed  out  of  sight  of  land. 

Paul  sailed  from  Csesarea,  in  Palestine,  in  a  ship  of  Adraymit- 
tium,  in  Mesia,  going  northward  to  Sidon ;  from  Sidon  the  Vessel 
went  to  the  island  of  Cyprus,  because  the  winds  were  contrary. 
The  thirty-fifth  degree  of  latitude  passes  through  the  centre  of  the 
island.  From  Cyprus  he  went  to  Myra,  in  Lycia,  a  little  north  of 
the  thirty -sixth  degree,  where  the  Centurion,  who  had  charge  of 
him  and  other  prisoners,  went  with  them  on  board  of  a  ship  of 
Alexandria  bound  for  Italy,  where,  after  sailing  slowly  for  many 
days  and  scarcely  come  opposite  the  island  of  Cnidus,  they 
sailed  under  the  island  of  Crete  between  the  thirty-fifth  degree  and 
thirty-sixth  degree  latitude,  opposite  Salmone,  and  hardly  passed 
it  when  they  came  to  a  place  called  Fair  Haven,  nigh  unto  the 
city  of  Lasea,  on  the  south  side  of  the  island  of  Crete,  which  is 
between  the  thirty-fifth  degree  and  thirty-sixth  degree  of  latitude. 

*  Captains  of  triremes. 

t  Anthem's  "  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities." 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  369 

Now  much  time  was  spent,  and  the  sailing  dangerous,  and  because 
the  haven  was  not  commodious  to  winter  in,  the  most  of  them  ad- 
vised to  depart  thence  and  endeavor  to  reach  Phenice,  a  haven  of 
Crete,  and  winter  there ;  but  when  they  thought  they  had  obtained 
their  purpose  they  sailed  close  to  Crete,  but  not  long  after  there 
arose  against  them  a  tempestuous  wind,  against  which  the  vessel 
could  not  bear  up,  so  they  went  before  the  wind,  running  under  a 
certain  island  called  Clauda,  and  so  being  exceedingly  tossed  by 
the  tempest,  they  lightened  the  ship,  and  the  third  day  cast  out 
the  tackling  of  the  ship,  and  when  neither  sun  nor  stars  appeared 
in  many  days,  and  the  tempest  continued,  all  hope  was  lost ;  but 
when  the  fourteenth  night  was  come,  as  we  were  driven  up  and 
down  the  Adriatic,  about  midnight  the  sailors  deemed  that  they 
drew  near  land,  and  sounded  and  found  twenty  fathoms,  and 
when  they  had  gone  a  little  farther  they  sounded  again  and  found 
fifteen  fathoms.  Then  fearing  lest  they  should  strike  against 
rocks,  they  cast  four  anchors  out  at  the  stern  and  waited  for  day  ; 
and  when  the  sailors,  under  pretence  of  casting  anchors  forward, 
had  let  down  the  boat  into  the  sea,  in  order  to  escape,  the  Cen- 
turion ordered  the  soldiers  to  cut  the  ropes  of  the  boat  and  let 
it  fall  off.  They  then  lightened  the  ship  and  cast  out  the  wheat 
into  the  sea,  and  when  it  was  day  they  knew  not  the  land,  but 
they  discovered  a  certain  creek  into  which  they  determined,  if  pos- 
sible, to  thrust  the  ship ;  therefore  when  they  had  taken  up  the 
anchors  they  hoisted  the  main  sail,  made  toward  the  shore,  and 
ran  the  ship  aground.  The  forepart  stuck  fast  and  remained  im- 
movable, but  the  hinder  part  was  broken  by  the  violence  of  the 
waves.  Then  the  Centurion  commanded  that  they  who  could 
swim  should  leap  into  the  sea  and  swim  to  shore.  The  rest,  some 
on  boards  and  some  on  pieces  of  the  wreck,  succeeded  in  reaching 
the  land,  and  so  they  all  escaped,  being  in  all  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  in  number.  And  when  they  had  escaped  they  then 
knew  that  the  island  was  Melita,  the  inhabitants  of  which  showed 
them  no  little  kindness,  for  they  kindled  a  fire  and  received  every- 
one kindly,  because  of  the  rain  and  cold.  In  the  same  quarter 
were  the  possessions  of  the  chief  man  of  the  island,  whose  name 
was  Publius,  who  received  and  lodged  them  three  days  courte- 
ously, and  when  they  departed  loaded  them  with  such  things  as 
were  necessary.  After  three  months  they  left  in  a  ship  of  Alex- 
andria, whose  sign  was  Castor  and  Pollux,  which  had  wintered  on 
the  island.  They  landed  at  Syracuse  and  remained  there  three 
days;  thence,  making  a  circuit,  they  went  to  Rhegium,  and  thence 

to  Puteoli.* 

*  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  xxvii.  and  xxviii. 

24 


370  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

Puteoli,  or  Pouzzoli,  about  three  miles  from  Naples,  is  on  the 
Bay  of  Baia,  a  branch  of  the  Bay  of  Naples,  where  the  great 
bridge,  said  to  have  been  built  by  Caligula  across  this  bay,  formed 
a  secure  and  closed  harbor.  Some  of  the  abutments  of  this  bridge 
still  exist,  and  in  the  hills  surrounding  this  harbor  are  still  to  be 
seen  the  massive  foundations  of  great  edifices  that  once  covered 
their  sides  and  crowned  their  summits.  Here  was  the  great  naval 
depot  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  hence  was  about  thirty-six  hours' 
travel  by  land  to  Rome. 

"  Publius,  who  received  Paul  into  his  house  during  three  days, 
is  called  by  St.  Luke  Prote  of  the  Island.  This  term  Prote  was 
assumed  by  the  first  magistrates  of  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Car- 
thaginians, from  whence  the  Maltese,  who  were  a  Phoenician 
colony,  had  borrowed  it.  It  is  wherefore  we  still  see  an  inscrip- 
tion where  the  first  magistrate  of  Malta  is  called  Perote  des 
Miletians."* 

It  is  to  be  observed,  in  this  account  of  St.  Paul's  voyage,  that 
the  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  shipwrecked  persons  were  put 
on  board  the  vessel  from  Alexandria,  who,  with  the  crew  of  that 
vessel,  made  probable  a  total  of  at  least  four  hundred  persons, 
thus  indicating  the  size  of  that  vessel. 

It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  the  ships  of  those  times  did  not 
travel  during  the  winter,  but  hibernated  three  or  four  months, 
thus  showing  why  their  voyages  were  so  long  between  points  that 
required  a  year  or  more  of  navigation. 

It  appears  from  this  account  of  Paul's  voyage  that  his  ship  was 
for  many  days  tossed  about  by  the  tempest,  being  driven  by  it 
from  near  the  centre  of  the  southern  coast  of  Crete  to  Malta,  a 
distance  of  ten  degrees  of  latitude ;  and  the  whole  management 
of  the  vessel,  in  finally  running  it  aground,  shows  that  nautical 
skill  in  those  days  was  much  the  same  as  it  is  now,  and  that  the 
navigators  of  those  days  did  not  timidly  sail  closely  to  the  shores, 
but  through  the  Mediterranean  Sea  from  island  to  island  on  the 
way  to  their  destination. 

The  Egyptians  must  have  been  acquainted,  at  a  very  early 
period,  with  the  three  principal  sorts  of  vessels  which,  sooner  or 
later,  prevailed  in  every  country  intersected  by  large  rivers  and 
washed  by  the  sea.  Irrigated  by  the  periodical  inundations  of 
the  Nile,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Mediterranean  and  on  the 
east  by  the  Red  Sea,  and  bordering  on  Phrenicia,  the  active,  enter- 

*  Translation  into  French  of  the  inscription,  which  was  in  Greek  :  ' '  Disser- 
tation Historique  et  Critique  sur  la  Naufrage  de  S.  Paul,"  par  M.  1'Abbe  Lavo- 
cat,  Bibliothecare  de  Sarbonne. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  ,OF    AMERICA.  371 

prising  genius  of  whose  people  spurned  the  petty  interest  of  a 
coasting-trade  and  braved  the  tempest  on  the  coast  of  Africa  and 
the  Grecian  Archipelago  ;  Egypt,  industrial,  commercial,  and  am- 
bitious, could  not  but  possess,  in  the  first  instance,  an  extensive 
river-navigation,  and  shortly  afterwards  a  mercantile  marine,  to- 
gether with  vessels  adapted  for  war  when  she  found  reason  to  fear 
the  hostile  attacks  of  armed  rivals  on  her  cargoes  of  provisions  or 
of  manufactured  goods,  and  perceived  that  invectives  of  aggression 
or  the  instinct  of  defence  were  fortifying  by  warlike  methods  the 
foreign  vessels  which  frequented  her  shores  for  trade,  thus  extort- 
ing concessions  from  the  fears  of  the  weak  and  claiming  respect 
from  the  strong  by  means  of  military  prowess. 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  from  what  era  dates  the  maritime 
commerce  of  Egypt,  or  when  their  mercantile  vessels  were  first 
armed  in  warlike  guise,  except  so  far  as  we  may  indulge  con- 
jectures founded  upon  the  oral  recitals  received  by  Herodotus 
from  the  priests  of  Vulcan  at  Memphis.  But  these  are  so  vague, 
and  have  so  many  palpable  fables  wearing  the  semblance  of  truth, 
that  their  authority  cannot  possess  much  weight.  It  is  beyond 
belief  that  no  fleets  were  equipped  during  the  obscure  period 
which  extends  from  Menes  to  Meris,  and  includes  the  reigns  of 
three  hundred  and  .thirty  kings,  or,  according  to  Larcher's  calcu- 
lations, about  eleven  thousand  years.  Either  Egypt  must  have 
been  a  small,  weak,  powerless  State,  or  else  it  could  never,  for  so 
long  a  time,  have  continued  in  a  state  of  maritime  inaction. 
Either  its  neighbors  must  have  made  aggressions  upon  its  territory 
and  caused  it  to  arm  its  vessels  in  its  own  defence,  or  otherwise, 
being  itself  actuated  by  ambition  or  urged  by  necessity,  invaded 
the  quiet  of  some  distant  people  tranquilly  cultivating  a  fertile 
soil ;  in  either  of  which  cases  the  Egyptians  must  necessarily 
have  possessed  a  navy  provided  with  warriors,  arms,  and  warlike 
machines. 

If  Sesostris  sailed  from  the  Arabian  Gulf  with  vessels  of  war  for 
the  subjugation  of  the  nations  dwelling  on  the  shores  of  the  Indian 
Ocean  (Herodotus  II.),  the  Egyptian  navy  must  already  have  ac- 
quired, before  this  time,  a  considerable  degree  of  importance.  Nor 
could  a  people  who  had  brought  the  arts,  and  especially  mechanics, 
to  such  a  pitch  of  perfection  as  is  testified  by  their  pyramids,  their 
temples,  and  their  extensive  catacombs,  have  allowed  their  naval 
operations  to  continue  in  an  anomalous  degree  of  debasement  so 
as  to  have  neither  merchant  ships  capable  of  transporting  valuable 
and  weighty  cargoes  nor  vessels  of  war  for  the  defence  of  their 
coasts  against  hostile  attacks. 


372  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

All  the  marine  Egyptian  remains  at  present  known  to  us  testify 
to  an  advanced  state  of  the  arts,  and  the  most  remarkable  of  these 
dates  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Rameses  IV.,  or  about  1450  B.  c. 
These  could  not  have  been  the  representation  of  a  new  state  of 
things  nor  the  figures  they  contain  the  results  of  a  recent  inven- 
tion. The  row-galleys  to  be  seen  in  the  celebrated  bas-relief  at 
Thebes,  copied  at  the  time  of  the  French  expedition  to  Egypt,  are 
very  different  from  the  rude  essays  of  navigation  in  the  stage  of 
timidity  where  it  employs  only  rafts  committed  to  the  current  of  a 
stream,  or,  at  most,  ventures  over  the  depths  of  a  lake  or  broad 
river  with  the  hollow  trunk  of  a  tree -rudely  guided  by  paddles. 

It  is  not  easy  to  form  a  precise  idea  of  the  Greek  galleys  at  the 
time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  but  according  to  the  best  of  our 
knowledge  they  were  not  very  different  from  those  which  had 
been  constructed  by  the  ship-builders  of  Rameses  IV.  The  bas- 
relief  with  which  that  monarch  decorated  the  porticos  of  his  pal- 
ace at  Thebes,  with  the  view  of  perpetuating  the  memory  of  a 
naval  battle  gained  by  the  Egyptians  over  one  of  the  nations 
dwelling  on  the  coast  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  contains  nine  long 
vessels  or  galleys,  four  of  them  Egyptian  and  five  manned  by  In- 
dians. The  nine  ships  in  this  bas-relief  have  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  each  other.  True  it  is,  that  while  .the  Egyptians  have 
oars,  the  Indians  are  without  them.  But  this  circumstance  not 
only  occasions  no  sensible  difference  between  the  Egyptian  gal- 
leys and  the  Indian  ships  in  the  shape  of  the  hull,  the  length, 
breadth,  and  height  of  the  bulwarks,  but  it  does  not  at  all  follow 
that  the  Indians  were  destitute  of  oars  or  unaccustomed  to  their 
use.  They  might  have  been  shipped  in  order  to  furl  the  sails,  or 
possibly  they  may  have  withdrawn  their  oars  during  the  combat, 
in  order  that  the  rowers  might  take  an  active  part  in  the  contest, 
their  crews  being  inferior  in  number  to  those  of  the  Egyptians. 
Neither  the  Indian  nor  the  Egyptian  vessels  were  flat-bottomed, 
for  it  is  evident  that  the  sculptor  intended  to  design  the  round- 
ness of  their  alveus  when  he  marked  the  keel,  which  is  very  dis- 
tinctly curved,  and  at  the  same  time  he  indicated  in  the  direction 
of  the  keel  and  that  of  the  line  of  oars  in  the  middle  of  the  vessel, 
the  depth  of  the  ship  and  its  capacity.  The  length  of  the  Egyp- 
tian galleys  is  rather  difficult  to  demonstrate,  but  Mr.  Jal  seems 
to  have  obtained  the  result  by  combinations,  which  have  great 
likelihood.  He  first  ascertained  the  distance  between  the  oars  to 
be  about  four  feet,  which  he  calculated  by  the  space  between  the 
rowers  and  the  attitude  of  their  bodies,  which  he  observed  to  be 
the  same  in  Mr.  Wilkinson's  wood-cut  No.  372  as  in  the  paint- 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  373 

ing  which  he  examined.  These  rowers  have  the  same  floating 
attitude,  carrying  the  body  forward,  sitting,  one  foot  on  the  bench 
of  the  fore  and  one  on  the  poop-side ;  then  throwing  themselves 
back  with  all  their  might  upon  their  seats,  produce  the  greatest 
impulse  upon  the  oars. 

Mr.  Jal  distinguishes  the  figure  of  the  king,  who  assists  in  the 
battle  with  the  grandees  of  the  empire,  by  his  colossal  greatness 
in  proportion  to  the  rest.  The  Indian  prisoners  are  represented 
smaller  than  the  triumphant  Egyptians.  The  pilots,  who  are  of 
the  ninth  class  of  the  Egyptian  populace,  are  pictured  as  very 
little,  compared  to  the  soldiers,  who  are  regarded  of  the  second 
class.  The  slingers,  of  whom  there  is  one  in  every  ship,  placed  in 
a  sort  of  basket  somewhat  like  an  overturned  bell,  who  assail  the 
enemy  with  stones  from  the  top  of  the  mast,  are  designed  of  the 
same  size  as  the  pilots,  and  are  only  regarded  as  of  the  seventh 
class. 

The  Egyptians  were  the  first  to  entertain  the  project  of  cutting 
an  artificial  canal,  with  a  view  to  establishing  a  communication 
across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
Red  Sea.  The  vestiges  of  this  undertaking  are  still  discernible, 
and  the  universal  testimony  of  ancient  writers  leaves  no  doubt 
that  its  execution  was  commenced.  It  is  also  evident  that  the 
Egyptians  were  the  instructors  in  navigation  of  the  ancient  Greeks, 
whose  excursions  did  not  extend  beyond  the  Mediterranean. 

That  the  ancient  Egyptian  boats  were  built  with  ribs  like  those 
of  the  present  day,  is  sufficiently  proven  by  the  rude  models 
discovered  in  the  tombs  of  Thebes. 

The  sails  of  the  ancient  boats  appear  to  have  been  always 
square,  with  a  yard  above  and  below. 

The  cabins  of  the  Egyptian  boats  were  lofty  and  spacious ; 
they  did  not,  however,  always  extend  over  the  whole  breadth  of 
the  boat,  but  merely  occupied  the  centre,  the  rowers  sitting  on 
either  side.  The  lotus  was  one  of  their  favorite  devices,  and  was 
very  common  on  the  blade  of  the  rudder,  where  it  was  frequently 
repeated  at  both  ends,  together  with  an  eye.  But  the  place  con- 
sidered particularly  suited  to  the  eye  was  the  head  or  bow  of  the 
boat,  and  the  custom  is  still  retained  in  some  countries  to  the 
present  day.  In  India  it  is  very  generally  adopted,  and  we  even 
see  the  small  barks  which  ply  in  the  harbor  of  Malta  bearing  the  eye 
on  their  bows  in  the  same  manner  as  the  boats  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians.* Streamers  were  occasionally  attached  to  the  pole  of  the 

*  The  Chinese  river-boats  also  have  an  eye  on  each  side  of  the  bow. 


374  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

rudder,  and  a  standard  was  erected  near  the  head  of  the  vessel, 
which  generally  had  on  it  the  figure  of  a  sacred  animal,  a  sphinx, 
or  some  emblem  connected  with  religion  or  royalty  ,  and  some- 
times the  top  of  the  mast  bore  a  shrine  of  feathers,  the  symbol  of 
the  deity  to  whose  protection  they  committed  themselves  during 
their  voyage.* 

There  is  a  striking  resemblance  in  some  points  between  the  boats 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  those  of  India  ;  and  the  form  of  the 
stern,  the  principle  and  construction  of  the  rudder,  the  cabins,  the 
square  sail,  the  copper  eye  on  each  side  of  the  head,  the  line  of 
small  squares  at  the  side,  like  false  windows,  and  the  shape  of  the 
oars  of  boats  used  on  the  Ganges  forcibly  call  to  mind  those  of  the 
Nile  represented  in  the  paintings  of  the  Theban  tombs. 

At  the  head  a  forecastle  frequently  projected  above  the  deck, 
which  was  assigned  to  the  man  who  held  the  fathoming-pole,  and 
at  the  stern  another  of  similar  form  was  sometimes  added,  where 
the  steersman  sat.  They  were  generally  adopted  and  found  of 
great  service  in  war-galleys. 

The  galleys,  or  ships  of  war,  differed,  in  their  construction,  from 
the  boats  of  the  Nile.  They  were  less  raised  at  the  head  and  stern, 
and  on  each  side,  throughout  the  whole  length  of  the  vessel,  a 
wooden  bulwark,  rising  considerably  above  the  gunwale,  sheltered 
the  rowers,  who  sat  behind  it,  from  the  missiles  of  the  enemy  ; 
the  handles  of  the  oars  passed  through  an  aperture  at  the  lower 
part. 

The  sail  was  reefed  by  means  of  ropes  runi\ing  in  pulleys  or 
loops  upon  the  yards.  The  ends  of  these  ropes,  which  were  usu- 
ally four  in  number — dividing  the  sails,  as  it  were,  into  five  folds — 
were  attached  to  the  lower  part  of  the  mast,  so  as  to  be  readily 
worked  when  the  sail  required  to  be  pulled  up  at  a  moment's  no- 
tice. In  this  respect,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  lower  yard,  the  sail 
of  the  war-galley  greatly  differed  from  that  of  the  boats  of  the 
Nile. 

Some  of  the  boats  of  the  Nile  were  furnished  with  forty-four 
oars,  twenty-two  being  represented  on  each  side,  which,  allowing 
for  the  steerage  and  prow,  would  require  their  total  length  to  be 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  They  were  furnished,  like  all 
the  others,  with  one  large  square  sail,  but  the  mast,  instead  of  being 
single,  was  made  of  two  limbs  of  equal  length,  sufficiently  open 
at  the  top  to  admit  the  yard  between  them,  and  secured  by  several 
strong  stays,  one  of  which  extended  to  the  prow  and  others  to  the 

*  The  Spanish  and  Italian  sailors  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  put 
their  vessels  under  the  protection  of  some  saint. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  OP    AMERICA.  375 

steerage  of  the  boat.  Over  the  top  of  the  mast  a  light  rope  was 
passed,  probably  intended  for  furling  the  sail,  which,  from  the 
horizontal  lines  represented  upon  it,  appears  to  have  been  like 
those  of  the  Chinese. 

The  small  Egyptian  galley  does  not  appear  to  have  been  fur- 
nished with  a  beak  like  those  of  the  Romans,  which,  being  of 
brass  sharply  pointed  and  sometimes  below  the  water's  surface, 
did  great  damage  to  an  enemy's  vessel;  but  a  lion's  head  fixed  to 
the  prow  supplied  its  place,  and  being  probably  of  metal,  was 
capable  of  doing  great  execution  when  the  galley  was  impelled  by 
the  force  of  sixteen  or  twenty  oars. 

At  the  extremity  of  the  yards  were  braces,  which,  being  held  by 
a  man  seated  in  the  steerage  or  upon  the  cabin,  served  to  turn  the 
sail  to  the  right  and  left ;  they  were  common  to  all  boats,  as  with 
the  Romans,  and  managed  in  the  same  manner. 

The  mode  of  steering  the  boat  is  different  from  that  usually 
depicted  in  the  Egyptian  paintings,  and  instead  of  a  rudder  in  the 
centre  of  the  stern  or  at  either  side,  it  is  furnished  with  three  on 
the  same  side. 

There  is  no  instance  of  a  boat  with  a  rudder  on  both  sides,  nor 
do  we  find  them  provided  with  more  than  one  mast  and  a  single 
sail.  Sometimes  the  rudder,  instead  of  traversing  in  a  groove  or 
hollow  space,  merely  rested  on  the  exterior  of  the  curved  stern, 
and  was  suspended  by  a  rope  or  bands ;  but  that  method  was  con- 
fined to  boats  used  in  religious  ceremonies  on  the  river. 

The  masts  were  probably  made  of  the  fir,  of  which  great  quan- 
tities were  annually  imported  into  Egypt  from  Syria.  The  planks, 
the  rib  and  the  keel  were  of  the  acacia.  The  foot  of  the  mast  was 
let  into  a  strong  beam  which  crossed  the  whole  breadth  of  the 
boat;  it  was  supported  by  and  lashed  to  a  knee  rising  to  a  con- 
siderable height  before  it,  and  the  many  stout  stays  fastened  at  the 
head,  stern  and  sides  sufficiently  secured  it. 

In  ships  of  war  the  yard  was  allowed  to  remain  aloft  after  the 
sail  had  been  reefed,  but  in  the  boats  of  the  Nile,  which  had  a  yard 
at  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  sail,  as  soon  as  it  was  furled  they 
lowered  the  upper  yard,  and  in  this  position  it  remained  until 
they  prepared  for  their  departure.  To  loosen  the  sail  from  the 
upper  yard  must  have  been  a  tedious  operation,  if  it  was  bound 
to  it  with  the  many  lacings  represented  in  some  of  the  paintings. 

The  use  of  pulleys,  of  which  Mr.  Wilkinson  gives  but  one  indi- 
cation, is  fully  admitted  and  proven  by  Mr.  Jal.  The  galleys  were 
always  decked,  and  it  seems  that,  with  the  exception  of  very  small 
boats,  all  other  Egyptian  vessels  were  decked  over  the  hold. 

The  yards  were  evidently  of  great  size  and  of  two  separate  pieces, 


376  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

and  crossed  or  joined  together  in  the  middle,  sometimes  supported 
by  five  or  six  lifts,  and  so  firmly  secured  that  men  could  stand 
or  sit  upon  them  while  engaged  in  arranging  the  sail,  and  from 
the  upper  yard  were  suspended  several  ropes  resembling  the 
"  horses  "  of  our  square-rigged  ships,  and  perhaps  intended  for 
the  same  purpose  when  they  furled  the  sail. 

Many  of  the  sails  were  painted  with  rich  colors  or  embroidered 
with  fanciful  devices  representing  the  phoenix,  flowers  and  various 
emblems ;  some  were  adorned  with  chequers,  and  others  were 
striped  like  those  of  the  present  day.  This  kind  of  cloth,  or 
embroidered  linen,  appears  to  have  been  made  in  Egypt  expressly 
for  sails,  and  was  bought  by  the  Tyrians  for  that  purpose ;  but  its 
use  was  confined  to  the  pleasure-boats  of  the  grandees  or  the  king 
himself,  ordinary  sails  being  white.  Mr.  Jal  contests  the  employ- 
ment of  the  papyrus  for  sea-boats.  He  concludes  the  papyrus 
boats  could  have  been  but  very  small  and  only  for  light  burthens, 
and  thinks  Pliny  rather  rashly  admitted  unexact  reports  when  he 
wrote  that  the  vessels  of  papyrus  sailed  to  Taprobane  (Ceylon), 
which  was  quite  impossible. 

The  Egyptians,  on  becoming  more  advanced  in  industry,  re- 
placed the  papyrus  in  their  sails  by  a  linen  tissue  made  of  hemp- 
thread  and  joined  with  small  twisted  strips  of  oxen-skin.  In  all 
ships  of  war  the  ropes  then  were  made  of  hemp,  instead  of  the 
fibre  of  the  byblus,  as  formerly. 

The  custom  of  dyeing  the  sails  of  ships  was,  says  Pliny,  "  first 
adopted  in  the  fleet  of  Alexander  the  Great  when  navigating  the 
Indus  ;"*  but  that  it  was  practiced  long  before  in  Egypt  is  evident 
from  the  paintings  at  Thebes  of  the  time  of  Rameses  the  Third, 
nine  hundred  years  previous  to  the  age  of  Alexander. 

The  edges  of  the  sails  were  furnished  with  a  strong  hem  or 
border,  also  neatly  covered,  serving  to  strengthen  it,  and  prevent 
injury,  and  a  light  rope  was  generally  sewn  around  it  for  the 
same  purpose. 

The  oars  of  the  galleys  were,  according  to  Mr.  Jal's  calculation, 
fifteen  feet  long,  six  feet  of  which  were  inside  the  galley.  One  end 
was  worked  into  a  long  round  handle,  and  the  other  extremity 
was  a  large  flat  blade,  which  had  rather  the  form  of  a  heart  than 
of  a  long  oval  paddle. 

The  great  length  of  the  oars  used  on  the  upper  tier  by  the 
Carthaginians  must  have  made  them  very  unwieldy,  for  the 
length  of  the  oar  was  necessarily  increased  with  each  ascending 
tier,  therefore  it  was  necessary  not  only  to  place  the  stoutest  and 

*  Alexander  having  adopted  this  custom  when  in  India,  it  is  probable  he 
found  it  prevalent  there. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  OF    AMERICA.  377 

most  athletic  rowers  at  the  upper  oars,  but  likewise  to  load  the 
handles  of  them  with  lead,  in  order  to  counterbalance  the  great 
weight  without.  These  rowers  were  distinct  from  the  soldiers 
who  fought,  for  rowing  was  esteemed  a  great  drudgery,  and  was 
not  unfrequently  in  ancient  as  in  modern  times  the  punishment 
of  malefactors,  who  were  chained  perpetually  to  the  benches  on 
which  they  rowed. 

The  breadth  of  a  galley  was  about  sixteen  feet.  In  the  carved 
representation  of  the  galley  which  Mr.  Jal  examined,  there  were 
no  more  than  eight  or  ten  oars  on  each  side,  forming  only  sixty 
feet  of  length,  but  he  shows  they  were  much  longer.  Mr.  Wilkin- 
son's wood-cut,  No.  372,  represents  a  galley  of  twenty-two  oars, 
which  gives  it  the  same  length  of  a  galley  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. It  is  very  probable  their  ships-of-war  were  quite  as  long, 
and  had  at  least  forty-four  oar-benches,  consequently  we  should 
suppose  the  length  of  these  ships  to  be  from  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet. 

Mr.  Jal  proves  that  the  forecastle  of  the  Egyptian  galley  was 
decked,  and  that  the  soldiers  fought  on  the  forecastle.  As  regards 
the  anchor,  Mr.  Jal  says :  "  That  among  all  the  Egyptian  naval 
figures  with  which  he  is  acquainted  he  could  not  find  one  object 
resembling  an  anchor."  Probably  they  used  large  stones  or  masses 
of  stone  for  the  same  office,  which  Mr.  Jal  believes  from  the  fol- 
lowing passage  of  Herodotus : 

"They  are  thus  guided — the  boats  of  burden  in  descending 
the  Nile  have  a  hurdle  of  twisted  cane  and  furze,  and  a  perforated 
stone  of  about  two  talents  weight  (about  one  hundred-weight). 
The  hurdle  is  bound  with  a  rope  in  front  of  the  ship,  which  is  al- 
lowed to  float  on  the  course  of  the  current.  The  stone  is  fastened 
behind  with  another  rope  ;  the  hurdle  carried  away  by  the  rapid 
stream,  pulls  after  it  the  baris — for  thus  the  kind  of  ship  is  called. 
The  stone  behind  drags  the  bottom  of  the  water  and  serves  to 
guide  its  course."  If  at  the  time  of  Sesostris  no  other  means  of 
stopping  the  ships  at  sea  or  on  the  Nile  were  known,  this  surely 
must  have  been. 

Arrian  relates  that  in  the  temple  of  the  Goddess  of  Phasis  he 
was  shown  the  anchor  of  the  ship  Argo ;  that  it  was  of  iron.  The 
resemblance  of  this  anchor  with  those  of  the  cotemporary  Greeks 
of  the  second  century  A.U.C.  led  him  to  believe  that  it  was  poste- 
rior to  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts.  He  adds  :  "  That  in  the 
same  temple  there  were  very  old  fragments  of  a  stone  anchor, 
which  was  more  likely  to  be  the  anchor  of  the  ship  Argo." 

AthenaBUS,  speaking  of  the  celebrated  ship  of  Ptolemy  Philo- 
pater,  says  that  ''it  had  four  wooden  anchors  and  eight  iron  an- 


8T8  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

chors."  The  iron  anchors  could  have  been  but  ingots  of  a  con- 
siderable weight.  As  for  wooden  anchors,  they  were  great  tubes 
filled  with  lead.  We  read  in  the  "  Antiquities  of  Diodorus  "  that 
the  Phoenicians,  after  having  laden  their  vessels  with  silver  in 
Sicily,  extracted  the  lead  from  their  anchors  and  replaced  it  with 
silver.* 

Mr.  Jal  purposely  multiplies  examples  to  prove  that  the  anchor 
was  long  a  mass,  acting  merely  from  weight,  and  that  even  when 
the  iron  was  bent  to  bite  into  the  earth  with  a  sharp  tooth,  and 
the  Greeks  could  call  it  ancura,  from  the  word  ancuros  (crooked), 
the  primitive  anchor  was  still  used. 

Mr.  Jal  says  he  persists  in  thinking  that  the  ancient  Egyptian 
anchor  was  nothing  but  a  shapeless  stone.  If  the  mariners  co- 
temporary  with  Rameses  III.  knew  of  the  crooked  anchor,  we 
should  find  it  in  some  of  the  naval  representations  taken  from 
the  ancient  monuments.  Its  form  is  such  that  the  Egyptians 
would  not  have  neglected  it ;  besides,  it  was  of  such  importance 
that  the  artist  would  have  represented  it,  at  least  sometimes,  since 
they  always  represented  the  fathoming-pole  and  the  weapon  of 
the  military  officer. 

Mr.  Jal  says  that  doubtless  the  vessels-of-war  had  a  national 
or  royal  pavilion,  and  that  he  cannot  comprehend  why  the  author 
of  the  bas-relief  of  Thebes  abstained  from  setting  up  at  the  mast 
or  at  the  flagstaff  the  Egyptian  ensign,  or  the  figure  of  the  deity 
under  the  protection  of  which  Sesostris  surely  did  not  fail  to 
place  his  fleet  when  it  set  out  for  the  great  and  perilous  expedi- 
tion to  India.  This  was  a  detail  of  the  highest  importance,  and 
could  not  have  escaped  the  pointed  attention  of  the  artist. 

Duly  to  appreciate  the  quality  of  the  Egyptian  ship  of  the  time 
of  Rameses  IV.  would  require  elements  of  which  we  have  not, 
and  which  could  not  be  supplied  by  any  hypothesis  which  we 
might  found  upon  our  own  knowledge  of  naval  construction  of 
that  epoch.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  in  long  days  a  vessel  makes 
altogether  seventy  thousand  orgies,  and  sixty  thousand  per  night. 
According  to  the  calculations  of  Lascher,  the  vessel  made  one  and 
three-quarters  of  a  league  per  hour. 

Mr.  Jal  demonstrates  that  the  swift  galley  of  the  seventeenth 
century  is  a  faithful  copy  of  the  Egyptian  galley  of  the  fifteenth 
century  B.C.,  which  he  thinks  a  fact  of  great  importance  to 
learned  men  and  naval  history,  and  confirms  the  old  proverb  that 
"  There  is  nothing  new  under  the  sun,"  for  maritime  science,  after 

*  The  first  Grecian  vessel — a  Samian — that  visited  Tartessus,  in  Spain,  did 
the  same  act.  These  two  accounts,  one  of  Herodotus,  the  other  of  Diodorus, 
may  be  of  the  same  event. 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  .OF    AMERICA.  879 

u  lapse  of  more  than  three  thousand  years, 'was  almost  at  the 
same  stage  as  at  first. 

Some  Egyptian  vessels  appear  to  have  been  of  very  great  size. 
Diodorus  mentions  one  of  cedar  wood,  dedicated  by  Sesostris  to 
the  god  of  Thebes,  four  hundred  and  twenty  feet  long ;  another 
built  by  Caligula,  in  Egypt,  to  transport  one  of  the  obelisks  to 
Rome.  Jal  does  not  believe  in  the  ship  of  Ptolemy  Philopater. 

Very  large  ships  were  known  in  ancient  times.  Lucien  in  one 
of  his  dialogues  mentions  an  Egyptian  ship,  named  Isis,  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty -six  cubits  long,  more  than  thirty  cubits  broad,  and 
twenty-nine  cubits  high  from  the  hold  to  the  upper  deck.  This 
colossal  ship  of  the  second  century  had  a  great  affinity  to  a  French 
vessel  of  war  of  the  third  rank.  The  Egyptian  art  was  far  from 
its  infancy  twelve  hundred  years  after  the  great  naval  armament 
of  Rameses  IV. 

The  Phoanicians  were,  according  to  Herodotus,  the  first  who  un- 
dertook long  voyages.  Among  the  Phoenicians,  Carthaginians, 
and  Greeks,  the  earlier  ships  used  in  common  were  flat-bottomed, 
broad,  and  of  small  draught  of  water;  the  floor-timbers  were  con- 
tinuous at  first,  and  they  were  without  a  keel,  having  instead  a 
strip  of  wood  on  either  inside,  to  take  the  ground  when  stranding. 
Next  was  introduced  the  keel,  in  order  to  diminish  the  drift  with 
a  side-wind  ;  and  to  increase  the  strength  a  keelson  was  soon 
added,  overlaying  the  floor-timbers  and  confining  them  to  the 
keel ;  beams  were  also  placed  aloft  to  hold  the  sides  together  and 
sustain  the  deck.  The  planking  was  firmly  attached  to  the  frame- 
work by  means  of  iron  nails,  some  of  which  passed  through  and 
were  clinched  within.  When,  however,  the  ancients  discovered  the 
tendency  of  the  iron  to  rot  the  wood,  they  substituted  copper.  To 
obviate  the  danger  of  starting  the  plank- ends — a  danger  still  some- 
times fatal  to  the  mariner — a  piece  of  wood  was  let  into  both  in  the 
form  of  a  dove-tail.  Oak  and  pine  then,  as  now,  were  the  woods 
most  in  favor  ;  chestnut  and  cedar  were  also  used  ;*  cypress,  not 
being  subject  to  shrink  and  cause  leakage,  was  also  esteemed,  and 
elm-wood  was  placed  in  such  parts  as  were  constantly  under  water. 

A  considerable  time  elapsed  before  the  Greeks  entered  the  ocean 
by  the  Arabian  Sea,  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  their 
oceanic  navigation  did  not  commence  before  the  death  of  Alex- 
ander. After  that  period  the  Greeks,  and  especially  the  Athe- 
nians and  Corinthians,  made  maritime  excursions  along  the  coasts 
of  Spain  and  Africa,  in  the  ocean  and  all  the  Mediterranean  ports, 
Egypt,  Phoenicia,  and  the  Euxine  Sea. 

*  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  in  this  book  that  Alexander  used  cedar  and  cypress 
in  the  vessels  which  he  built  at  Babylon. 


380  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXVI. 

It  is  pretended  that  the  Phoenicians,  in  their  solicitude  to  retain 
the  vast  monopoly  of  trade,  to  which  they  were  indebted  to  their 
enterprise  and  industry,  not  only  studiously  concealed  the  course 
by  which  they  arrived  at  remote  countries  with  which  they  traded, 
but  if  followed  by  strange  vessels  would  seek  to  mislead  them, 
and  even  risk  the  loss  of  their  own  vessels  to  effect  that  of  their 
pursuers.  To  complete  the  discouragement  of  their  commercial 
rivals,  they  plundered  and  destroyed  every  foreign  vessel  and 
crew  that  they  met  with.  The  earliest  instance  of  naval  warfare 
recorded  in  history  is  that  of  Erythras,  a  prince,  who  made  him- 
self master  of  the  Red  Sea  and  monopolized  its  commerce  to  the 
exclusion  of  the  Egyptians,  who  were  only  allowed  to  navigate  it 
with  a  single  ship.* 

It  is  a  very  remarkable  fact  that  Cadmus,  a  Phoenician,  who  in- 
troduced the  use  of  letters  into  Greece,  came  to  that  country  at 
the  same  time  that  the  armies  of  Joshua,  the  general  of  the  Jews, 
pressed  the  Phoenician  tribes  to  the  sea  and  forced  them  to  found 
colonies.f 

*  Erythrceum  Mare,  Red  Sea,  was  applied  by  the  Greeks  to  the  whole  ocean 
extending  from  Arabia  to  India,  as  far  as  the  island  of  Taprobane,  now  Ceylon. 
They  derived  the  name  from  that  of  an  ancient  monarch,  Erythras,  who  reigned 
along  the  coasts,  and  they  believed  that  his  grave  was  in  one  of  the  adjacent 
islands.  Afterwards  the  name  was  applied  merely  to  the  sea  below  Arabia,  and 
to  the  Arabian  and  Persian  Gulfs.  The  appellation  was  probably  derived  from 
Edom  (Esau),  whose  descendants  were  called  Idumeans,  and  inhabited  the 
northern  part  of  Arabia.  They  navigated  the  Red  Sea  and  Persian  Gulf,  and 
also  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  the  name  Idumean  signifying  red,  the  sea  of  the  Idu- 
means was  called  the  Red  Sea  and  Erythrean  Sea.  Arrian,  who  quotes  Near- 
chus,  admiral,  and  Ptolemy,  general,  in  Alexander's  army,  says  of  the  island 
Organa,  situated  within  the  Persian  Gulf  and  near  the  Persian  shore  :  "It  pro- 
duces plenty  of  vines,  palm-trees,  and  corn,  and  was  full  eight  hundred  stadia  in 
length.  In  this  island  the  sepulchre  of  the  first  monarch  thereof  is  said  still  to 
remain,  and  that  his  name  was  Erythras,  and  from  him  the  sea  was  called  Mare 
Erythrceum."  It  is  probable  that  the  Red  or  Erythrean  Sea  mentioned  in  the  text 
was  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  the  monarch  who  defeated  the  Egyptians  this  Ery- 
thra  ;  and  that  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  had  maritime  communication 
and  commercial  relations  at  the  time  of  Raineses,  Sesostris,  and  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  same  relations  existed  at  that  time  between  Egypt  and  India 
and  Babylon  and  India.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  people  of  Babylon, 
then  the  greatest  city  of  the  world,  dammed  the  Euphrates  from  fear  of  an  in- 
vasion through  that  river ;  besides  every  flood  would  have  washed  the  dams 
away.  It  is  probable  that  they  leveed  the  banks  of  that  river,  and  that  these 
were  the  dams  which  historians  have  misrepresented. 

f  Anthon  says  :  "  The  myth  of  Cadmus  is  usually  regarded  as  offering  a  con- 
vincing proof  of  the  fact  that  the  colonies  from  the  East  having  come  to  Greece 
introduced  civilization  and  the  arts  ;  an  examination,  however,  of  the  legend  in 
this  point  of  view  will  hardly  warrant  such  an  opinion.  Cadmus  is  the  name  of 
Mercury  in  the  mysteries  of  Samothrace,  instituted  by  the  Tyrrhenian  Pelasgi, 


CHAP.  XXXVI.]  -OP    AMERICA.  381 

The  little  we  know  of  the  Carthaginians  comes  to  us  through 
their  implacahle  enemies,  the  Romans.  The  Carthaginians,  not 
contented  with  the  trade  of  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  the  Red  Sea,  Gaul, 
Spain,  and  Mauritania,  and  the  narrow  limits  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, stood  boldly  forth  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  previously 
esteemed  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  the  world,  and  carried  their  commer- 
cial enterprise  to  the  western  coasts  of  Europe  and  Africa,  and 
even  to  the  British  Isles. 

"  The  Carthaginians  interdicted  the  passage  to  the  Canary 
Islands,  which  had  then  but  just  been  discovered,  fearing  that 
their  people  would  desert  their  native  country  and  go  thither. 
They  kept  their  discoveries  secret,  and  refused  to  share  them  with 
others,  so  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  state  how  far  they  ex- 
tended. They  ruled  over  Sicily,  Malta,  Goloden,  the  Balearic 
Isles,  Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  Spain.  They  navigated  to  the  west 
of  Africa  as  far  as  Cape  Verd,  and  along  Europe  to  the  British 
Isles;  perhaps  their  voyages  extended  even  farther." — Muller. 

''  Ancient  mariners  complained  of  the  many  shallows  existing  in 
some  parts  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  this  appears  to  have  some 
geographical  foundation,  it  being  well  known  that  Plato  stated 
a  very  ancient  tradition  of  the  Egyptian  priest  of  '  a  country  be- 
yond the  Herculian  pillars  which  sunk  in  one  stormy  night.' 
The  existence  of  a  very  great  continent,  as  large  as  the  whole  world  (!) 
was  not  unknown  to  Aristotle.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  modern 
mariners  have  observed  several  shallows  almost  connected  together 
from  Spain  over  to  the  Azores  to  Newfoundland  ;  and  it  is  proba- 
ble that  the  land  which  formerly  joined  the  two  worlds  had  sunk, 
which  rendered  the  navigation  very  difficult  until  the  overflowed 
soil  had  gradually  deepened  and  consequently  retired  from  the 
coast  of  Europe." — M.*  f 

who  at  the  time  of  the  Dorian  migration,  being  driven  from  Beotia,  settled  in 
the  islands  north  of  the  Egean.  The  name  of  Cadmus  occurs  only  at  Thebes 
in  Beotia,  and  Samothrace."  See  article  "  Pelasgi,"  Classical  Die. 

*  There  are  shallows  now  in  the  ocean,  as  there  ever  have  been  and  ever  will 
be.  There  is  nothing  very  curious  nor  very  strange  about  it ;  but  it  is  surprising 
that  the  pretty  little  story  that  Plato  wrote,  to  give  an  idea  of  what  he  thought 
the  best  government,  should  be  received  and  entertained  for  so  long  a  time  and 
by  so  many  persons  as  an  actual  fact,  a  reality.  The  tradition  of  the  Egyptian 
priest  is  probably  a  vague  memory,  recollection ,  of  a  continent  in  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  with  which  the  ancient  communication  was  lost  and  forgotten,  and  that 
continent  America. 

f  "The  Ship — Its  Origin  and  Progress,"  by  Francis  Steinitz,  being  a  large 
work  and  history  of  vessels  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  century,  with 
designs  and  descriptions  of  vessels. 


382  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXVII. 


CHAPTER   XXXVII. 

Ancient  Settlements — Idumeans — Omerites — Chuseens — Eastern  and  Western 
Sabians — Arabia  Felix — Ophir — Sabea — Diodorus's  Account  of  Sabea  and 
Sabeans — Tartessus  and  Tartesse  of  Cilicia,  and  of  Spain — The  Voyages  to 
Tarsus  from  Elath  and  Esion-Gaber,  at  the  head  of  the  Arabic  Gulf. 

ESAU,  surnamed  Edom,  and  Jacob,  surnamed  Israel,  are  the 
authors  of  two  celebrated  peoples — the  Idumeans  and  the  Israel- 
ites. Edom  the  Red,  a  term  which  many  Greek  historians  have 
translated  by  Erythros,  was  the  father  of  the  Idumeans  who  ex- 
tended themselves  in  the  valleys  of  Mount  Seir  and  to  the  foot 
of  Mount  Pharan,  to  the  south  of  the  Dead  Sea,  and  even  to  the 
Arabic  Gulf.  The  Idumeans  became  a  powerful  nation  distrib- 
uted into  many  tribes  or  provinces  which  had  for  a  long  time  their 
own  kings  distinct  from  those  of  Israel.  The  name  Edom  or  Ery- 
thros passed  to  the  Arabic  Gulf.  The  Scriptures  always  call  it 
the  Sea  or  the  Gulf  of  Reeds;  but  for  more  than  two  thousand  years 
all  the  nations  have  given  to  it  the  name  of  Idumean  Sea  or  Ery- 
thrion  or  Red  Sea.  Some  historians  have  extended  this  name  Red 
or  Erythrion  to  all  the  seas  which  environ  Arabia,  which  might 
cause  some  confusion  in  the  reading  of  history  if  we  were  not 
aware  of  it. 

Among  the  numerous  descendants  of  Edom  was  Omar,  whose 
children,  more  known  to  ancient  authors  than  many  other  eastern 
peoples,  left  the  rocks  and  deserts  of  Arabia  Petria  and  extended 
themselves  along  the  Red  Sea,  where  they  addicted  themselves  to 
commerce.  The  most  of  this  nation  settled  in  Arabia  Felix,  be- 
tween the  Sabians  and  the  Hadramites,  on  one  hand,  and  the  Strait 
of  Ocelis  or  Babelmandel,  on  the  other.  It  is  the  passage  from  the 
Red  Sea  into  the  ocean.  They  had  for  their  capital  Marib  or 
Mariaba,  which  still  exists,  with  the  same  name,  at  the  side  of 
the  country  of  incense  and  of  aromatics,  which  is  still  called  Ha- 
dramut  or  Dwelling  of  Death.  Many  writers  have  confounded 
the  Sabians  with  the  Homerites,  but  they  were  only  neighbors. 

The  Omerites  crossed  the  straits  and  made  settlements  in  Africa, 
where,  it  is  quite  probable,  they  founded  the  colony  of  Abyssinia, 
which,  without  having  ever  been  Mohammedan,  still  preserve  cir- 
cumcision, not  as  a  ceremony  necessary  to  the  religion  which  they 
profess,  but  as  a  mark  of  the  nobility  of  their  race  descended  from 
Abraham. 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]  .OF    AMERICA.  383 

Several  branches  of  Israelites  spread  themselves  in  Egypt,  where 
they  early  introduced  circumeision.  Other  Ishmaelites  penetrated 
into  the  heart  of  Africa,  and  communicated  the  same  usage  of  cir- 
cumcision to  the  Negroes. 

The  country  of  Chus,  beyond  the  lower  Tigris,  to  the  east  of  its 
mouth  in  the  Gulf  of  Persia,  is  still  called  Chusistan.  But  branches 
of  the  Chuseens  were  scattered  on  both  sides  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 
The  name  Chuseens,  Cisnens,  and  Chuteans  (all  the  same  word 
pronounced  differently)  was  given  to  the  inhabitants  of  Chusistan 
to  the  east  of  the  mouths  of  the  Tigris.  Of  the  Chuseens  to  the 
west  of  the  Tigris  some  were  sedentary,  as  Hevilah,  Seba,  Regma, 
and  Dedan ;  the  others,  Scenites,  or  dwellers  under  tents,  roamed 
in  the  deserts  of  Arabia  as  far  as  Sur,  or  the  Isthmus  of  Suez. 

Those  along  the  western  coast  of  the  Persian  Gulf  became  skil- 
ful navigators  and  merchants.  They  went  to  the  ports  of  Tyre  in 
Phoenicia  by  descending  through  the  Strait  of  Ormus,  which  is  the 
entrance  and  exit  to  this  gulf.  Then,  in  the  ocean,  turning  round 
Arabia  Felix,  they  entered  the  Arabic  Gulf  by  the  Strait  of  Ocelis, 
now  Babelmandel,  passing  before  the  port  of  Mosa,  which  has  also 
been  named  Musa  and  Mosca,  and  left  their  vessels  in  the  port  of 
Elath,  at  the  head  of  the  gulf,  to  finish  their  journey  by  land  to 
Tyre.  Others  made  this  journey  by  land  ;  nothing  was  more  com- 
mon to  the  Arabs  than  to  travel  in  caravans  through  the  most 
arid,  sandy  deserts.  Ptolemy  places  a  town  of  Regma,  or  Rigama, 
and,  immediately  afterwards,  a  people,  whom  he  calls  Asabians, 
near  the  strait. 

"  The  eastern  Sabians,  who  often  passed  into  Carmania,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  gulf,  are  very  different  from  the  western  Sabians,* 
who  are  the  true  Sabians,  settled  with  the  Omerites,  or  descend- 
ants of  Omer,  at  the  extremity  of  the  south  of  Arabia.  Both  of 
these  Sabians  enjoyed  very  nearly  the  same  advantages.  They 
had  gold,  aromatics,  topaz,  and  other  precious  stones.  It  was  from 
southern  Sabia,  which  was  the  most  famous,  that  the  Queen  of  Saba 
came  to  visit  Solomon.  Ptolemy  confirms  the  distinction  of  the 
two  Sabias.  He  says :  '  The  Sabians  are  celebrated  for  the  pos- 
session of  incense,  and  they  are  distinct  peoples,  who  inhabit  (in 
Arabia)  the  borders  of  the  two  opposite  seas  (the  Persian  Gulf  and 
the  Arabic  Gulf).' " 

Arabia  is  a  very  spacious  peninsula,  having,  though  unequally, 
six  hundred  leagues  in  length  by  nearly  as  many  in  breadth.  It 
has  to  the  east  the  Euphrates  and  the  Gulf  of  Persia,  to  the  south 

*  "Eastern"  and  "Western"  have  reference  to  the  location  of  the  Sabians 
in  Arabia,  and  not  to  the  Persian  Gulf. 


384  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

the  Indian  Ocean,  and  to  the  west  the  Red  Sea.  All  this  grand 
region  is  now  divided  into  three  parts — Arabia  Petria,  the  Desert 
and  Yemen.  Petria,  which  is  the  smallest,  has  retained  its  name 
from  its  ancient  capital,  Petra,  which  signifies  rock,  and  which  is 
the  meaning  of  its  ancient  and  real  name,  Selaw. 

Arabia  Felix,  which  is  the  most  southern  of  the  three  parts,  and 
the  nearest  the  ocean,  takes  its  name  from  its  gold,  pearls,  precious 
stones,  and  aromatics,  which  enrich  its  different  provinces.  The 
washings  of  the  pellicles  of  gold,  which  the  rains  carry  from  the 
mines,  have  ceased  through  exhaustion.  But  the  pearls  which 
they  obtained  from  the  rock  of  the  island  of  Baherin  are  still  the 
commerce  of  the  town  Elcatif.  The  aromatics,  as  the  incense, 
myrrh,  and  others,  as  well  as  the  odoriferous  or  medicinal  gums 
or  resins,  continue  to  exude  from  the  trees  which  produce  them, 
especially  in  the  country  of  Hadramout,  which  appears  to  have 
given  its  name  to  the  aromatics  which  they  go  to  seek  there. 
Arabia  Felix  also  bears  the  name  of  Yemen,  or  The  Kingdom  of 
the  Right,  because  the  ancient  Arabs  of  the  desert  in  their  religious 
ceremonies  and  in  their  astronomical  observations  turning  always 
towards  the  rising  sun,  had  on  their  right  Arabia  Felix. 

The  first  settlement  which  Moses  gives  to  the  children  of  Jac- 
tan  is  from  Mesa,  along  the  route  of  the  mountains  of  Saphar  to 
the  east  of  Mesa.  Arrian  indicates  the  same  places.  But  either 
that  the  first  letter  of  the  word  Saphar  was  but  an  aspiration,  or 
that  the  pronunciation  changed  from  one  people  to  another,  he 
gave  to  these  chains  of  mountains  Saphar,  or  Saphara,  the  name 
Aphar.  Others  have  named  them  Ophir,  or  Sophir,  and  So- 
ph irah. 

The  port  of  Mesa,  which  was  on  the  coast  of  Arabia'Felix,  fifteen 
or  twenty  leagues  below  (north  of)  the  entrance  to  the  Red  Sea, 
has  always  been  much  frequented  in  antiquity.  Ptolemy  knew  it, 
and  placed  it,  just  as  we  have  said,  under  the  name  of  Musa.  He 
places  to  the  east  of  this  port  the  Metropolis  town,  Saphar,  in  the 
midst  of  a  country  whose  inhabitants  he  names  Sapharites,  and 
at  the  base  of  a  chain  of  mountains  to  the  east,  which  he  names 
the  stairs,  or  the  descent,  and  which  Moses  calls  Saphar.  All  these 
marks  become  so  much  the  more  certain,  as  at  the  side  of  these 
mountains  is  found  the  celebrated  habitations  of  the  Sabeans, 
the  country  of  Hadramout,  which  still  preserves  its  name,  and 
that  of  Ophir. 

There  were  several  colonies  of  the  name  Seba,  or  Saba,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  Desert  of  Arabia  and  of  Arabia  Felix.  But  the 
most  celebrated,  the  true  Sabea,  famous  for  its  gold  and  for  its  in- 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  385 

cense,  is  that  which  had  Saba  for  its  capital,  towards  the  south 
or  lower  part  of  Yemen.  First,  it  was  from  there  that  the  Queen 
of  Saba  brought  presents  to  Solomon  ;  and  moreover  the  Gospel, 
which  calls  her  the  Queen  of  the  South,  because  of  the  situation 
of  the  Sabeans,  also  calls  Sabea  the  extremities  of  the  earth,  because 
it  was  the  most  remote  towards  the  south,  at  the  end  of  the  great 
continent,  and  that  its  coasts  were  bathed  by  the  ocean  beyond 
which  they  knew  no  more  habitable  countries. 

The  same  town  of  Saba,  or  Sabe,  which  is  found  in  Ptolemy, 
has  often  been  called  Mareb,  or  Mariaba,  which  signifies  the  capi- 
tal. Some  travellers  have  claimed  that  Saba  was  different  from 
Mareb,  which  still  exists,  and  that  the  latter  was  the  capital  of 
the  Omerites,  mingled  with  the  Sabeans,  and  perhaps  became 
masters  of  the  country.  This  dispute  interests  us  little,  but  it 
gives  us  occasion  to  remark  that  the  colony  of  Saba  has  been  dis- 
turbed by  another  family,  or  rather  by  a  numerous  nation.  The 
Omerites,  or  Homerites,  to  whom  Omar  gave  his  name,  attached 
themselves  to  commerce  along  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Red  Sea, 
and  introduced  themselves  even  into  Sabea,  where  Ptolemy  places 
them  quite  far  into  the  country  of  the  Sabeans. 

The  country  of  Hadramout,  which  Ptolemy  puts  in  his  map  of 
Arabia  at  the  side  of  the  mountains  of  Saphar,  and  which  is  still 
found  to  the  south  of  these  mountains,  has  rather  given  its  name 
to  one  of  the  children  of  Jactan  tha,n  received  it  from  him,  for 
this  name  signifies  dwelling  of  death,  or  unhealthy  air,  which  natu- 
rally rather  becomes  a  country  than  a  man.  The  reason  of  this 
denomination  comes  from  the  fact  that  this  country,  which  is  the 
most  fertile  in  aromatics,  nourishes  many  very  dangerous  ser- 
pents ;  and  especially  because  the  air,  charged  with  all  these  too 
active  odors,  is  injurious  to  travellers,  and  fatal  to  those  who  re- 
main there  too  long;  from  whence  it  happens  that  hurtful  animals 
multiply  there  with  most  freedom.  It  is  the  bad  air  that  has 
caused  to  be  given  to  many  places  the  name  of  Hadramout,  or 
Adrumet,  and  especially  to  the  celebrated  town  which  the  Car- 
thaginians built  upon  their  coast  in  Africa,  opposite  the  southern 
coast  of  Sicily.  These  words,  Hatfar  mavet  (atrium  mortis)  in 
Hebrew ;  Datramout,  or  Adramout,  in  Arabic ;  and  Adrumet  in 
Phoenician,  all  signify  the  same  thing,  although  pronounced  in 
three  languages. 

The  sources  of  this  abundance  of  gold  which  distinguished  the 
country  of  Saba  was  the  particles  of  this  metal  which  the  great 
rains  and  the  torrents  carried  down  from  the  neighboring  mines  to 
the  base  of  the  mountain  of  Ophir.  This  name  of  Ophir  appears  no 

25 


386  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

other  than  that  of  Aphar  and  Saphar,  which  the  mountains  in  the 
vicinity  of  Saba  and  Hadramout  bare.  The  name  of  Ophir  is 
found  rendered  in  Josephus,  and  in  other  ancient  interpreters,  by 
those  of  Sophira  or  of  Suphara.  It  appears  by  the  discourse  of 
Eliphas,*  one  of  Job's  friends,  and  an  Arab,  as  he,  that  this  gold 
of  Ophir  was  not  sought  by  digging  deep  into  the  earth,  but  that  it 
was  carried  down  by  the  torrents,  and  that  they  separated  it  from 
the  gravel  and  the  earth,  with  which  it  rolled  in  confusion.  Per- 
haps the  name  Ophir,  or  Sophara  and  Sophcda,  was  carried  after- 
wards to  a  place  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  where  they  stillf 
make  a  great  collection  of  gold-dust. 

Diodorus  Siculus,  in  his  description  of  the  Red  Sea,  thus  speaks 
of  the  country  "  surnamed  Aldei  and  Gasandi,  which  is  a  country 
not  so  hot  as  the  others  adjoining  it,  but  is  for  the  most  part  moist 
and  soft  by  reason  of  the  many  thick  clouds  carried  thither  by  the 
winds.  This  land  is  naturally  fertile,  but  lies  altogether  unculti- 
vated, through  the  negligence  of  the  inhabitants.  They  draw  gold 
also  from  the  mines  without  the  help  of  art,  howbeit  not  such  gold 
as  must  be  melted  in  the  fire  to  bring  it  forth,  but  gold  that  is  by 
nature  pure.  It  is  found  in  little  small  pieces,  so  that  the  dust  is 
like  a  spark  of  fire,  and  the  greatest  as  big  as  a  nut.  This  gold 
they  wear  on  their  fingers  and  about  their  necks,  with  precious 
stones  betwixt.  Now,  because  they  have  abundance  of  it,  and, 
contrarily,  are  in  want  of  brass  or  iron,  they  exchange  the  one  for 
the  other  with  merchants." 

"  The  next  Arabians  are  named  Carbes,  and  adjoining  to  them 
are  the  Sabeans,  the  most  populous  nation  of  all  that  inhabit 
Arabia  the  happy,  and  replenished  with  all  things  which  we 
esteem  to  be  most  precious,  as  also  with  great  store  of  all  manner 
of  cattle.  In  sweet  odors,  which  are  naturally  produced  in  their 
country,  they  surpass  all  other  regions  of  the  world,  for  balsamum 
grows  in  the  maritime  parts  thereof,  and  cassia  likewise ;  so  also 
another  herb  of  a  singular  virtue,  which,  newly-gathered,  refreshes 
the  sight  of  those  who  look  upon  it,  but  kept  awhile  it  loses  its 
force.  In  the  Mediterranean  parts  thereof  are  many  goodly 
forests,  full  of  trees  bearing  frankincense  and  myrrh  ;  therein 
grow  also  palm-trees,  canes,|  cinnamon,  and  other  such  like  odor- 
iferous things  whereof  it  is  not  possible  to  recount  all  the  several 

*  Job  xxii.,  24. 

f  Pluch  was  born  in  the  year  1688,  died  1761  ;  so  this  traffic  in  gold-dust,  on 
the  eastern  coast  of  Africa,  was  carried  on  between  these  dates. 

J  Mere  canes  would  hardly  be  worth  mentioning.     May  it  not  have  been  sugar 


CHAP.  XXXVII.]  OF    AMERICA.  387 

sorts  in  particular,  so  abundantly  hath  nature  assembled  them 
there  together,  so  that  the  odors  which  come  to  our  senses  from 
those  trees  seem  to  be  somewhat  that  is  truly  divine,  and  which 
cannot  well  be  expressed  ;  and  certainly  such  as  sail  in  such  seas 
(though  they  be  far  from  the  continent)  partake  in  the  pleasure 
of  these  sweet  smells,  for  the  winds,  which  in  the  springtime  blow 
from  the  land,  transport  such  odors  to  the  maritime  parts  there- 
abouts ;  for  the  virtue  of  these  aromatics  is  not  weak  and  faint,  as 
it  is  here  with  us,  but  so  strong  and  fresh  as  it  pierces  through  our 
senses;  for  that  the  wind,  in  such  sort  mingled  with  delicate  savors 
blowing  upon  the  sea,  affects  the  spirits  of  passengers  with  a  mar- 
vellous sweetness,  and  greatly  avails  unto  health.  Howbeit  nature 
hath  not  given  to  these  Sabians  so  pure  and  simple  a  felicity 
without  some  displeasure,  but  hath  mingled  a  great  deal  of  misery 
with  so  much  bliss,  for  in  all  such  their  odoriferous  forests  there 
is  a  number  of  red  serpents  a  span  long  which  bite  and  hurt  men 
mortally." 

"  The  metropolitan  city  of  this  nation  is  called  Saba,  and  is 
situated  on  a  high  mountain  where  their  kings  come  to  the  crown 
by  succession  of  lineage.  These  are  held  to  be  the  richest  people, 
not  only  of  Arabia,  but  of  all  the  world.  By  reason  of  their  trad- 
ing they  exchange  a  thing  of  little  weight  with  the  merchant  for 
a  great  sum  of  money,  and  so  for  this  cause,  as  also  for  that  they 
have  never  suffered  any  bad  fortune  or  calamity,  and,  besides, 
have  great  abundance  of  gold  and  silver,  especially  in  the  city  of 
Saba  (where  the  king  is  always  resident),  all  their  vessels  whatso- 
ever are  of  gold  and  silver,  the  most  of  them  curiously  engraved  ; 
nay  their  beds,  tables,  and  stools,  have  their  feet  of  silver,  and  all 
the  rest  of  their  household  stuff  is  so  magnificent  and  costly  that 
it  can  hardly  be  credited.  The  entrance  into  their  houses  are 
adorned  with  great  pillars,  whereof  the  chapters  are  either  of  gold 
or  silver.  Amongst  other  things  their  floors,  ceilings,  and  portals 
of  their  chambers  are  enriched  with  plates  of  gold  and  precious 
stones  to  show  the  marvellous  sumptuousness  of  their  houses,  for 
everything  in  them  shines  either  with  gold,  silver,  or  precious 
stones.  Some  of  them  are  garnished  with  ivory  and  many  other 
things  of  great  value  and  esteem.  Verily  the  Sabeans  have  always 
lived  in  perpetual  felicity,  *br  they  have  never  gone  about  to  usurp 
other  men's  estates  out  of  ambition  and  avarice,  which  hath  been 
the  cause  of  many  people's  ruin.  Not  far  from  hence  are  the 
happy  islands  where  towns  are  without  walls,  and  their  sheep  are 
all  white,  whereof  the  ewes  are  naturally  without  horns.  To  these 
islands  do  merchants  resort  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  but  most  of 


388  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXVII. 

all  to  the  city  of  Potana,  which  Alexander  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Indus." 

Javan,  Jaon,  Jon  are  different  pronunciations  of  the  name 
which  this  son  of  Japheth  bore,  who  was  the  father  of  Tarshish, 
Elishah,  Kittim,  and  Dodanim,*  authors  of  as  many  celebrated 
colonies.  Their  first  sojourn  was  Asia  Minor.  Tarshish  did  not 
quit  it;  he  stopped  between  the  Taurus,  the  Amanus,  and  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea.  He  built  there  the  town  Tartessus,  or  Tarsis,  the 
capital  of  Cilicia.  The  river  Cydmus,  upon  which  it  was  situated, 
and  the  sea,  which  was  not  far  from  it,  made  Tarsus  commercial. 
It  traded  particularly  with  the  Cypriots,  whom  it  had  before  it, 
with  the  Syrians  and  the  Phoenicians  which  it  had  near  on  the 
left  of  the  river. 

It  had  afterward  an  offshoot  of  the  same  name,  a  new  Tartesse 
or  Tarsis  built  by  the  merchants  of  Cilicia  and  of  Phoenicia,  at  the 
extremity  of  Andalousia,  in  Spain,  towards  the  little  island  of 
Cadiz,  and  the  strait  of  the  same  name,  now  the  Strait  of  Gibral- 
tar. The  Phoenicians  had  nothing  more  at  heart  than  the  com- 
merce of  the  river  Beatis,  in  Spain,  which  is  now  called  Guadal- 
quiver.  They  found  there  a  good  business  in  gold,  silver,  tin, 
fine  woods,  and  good  wines.  They  had  near  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  where  was  Tartesse,  an  island  of  refuge  where  they  put  all 
their  merchandises  of  Asia  and  Spain  in  security.  It  is  what 
caused  them  to  give  to  the  island  the  name  of  Gadar,  enclosure,  re- 
treat, a  name  which  was  altered  and  changed  to  that  of  Gades. 
The  Cilicians  gave  to  a  neighboring  town  the  name  of  their  capi- 
tal, but  history  shows  us  the  Phoenicians  there  always  as  masters, 
and  as  the  principal  merchants.  This  new  Tarsis  effaced  the  other 
and  became  the  source  of  the  riches  of  Sidon.  When  they  would 
speak  in  Syria  of  constructing  or  equipping  a  great  sea-vessel,  a 
vessel  of  long  course,  they  said  Equip  the  ships  of  Tarsus.  They 
went,  in  fact,  to  new  Tarsis  by  the  entire  passage  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. They  went  there,  also,  by  leaving  the  ports  which  the 
Phoenicians  had  on  the  Red  Sea,  and  in  navigating  round  Africa, 
then  in  returning  by  the  Mediterranean,  or  in  repassing  again 
along  the  coasts  of  Africa  and  re-entering  into  the  ports  of  Elath 
or  Esion-Gaber,  at  the  head  of  the  Arabic  Gulf.  They  trafficked 
advantageously  with  the  savages  of  these  coasts  in  carrying  to  them 
in  the  first  route  the  merchandises  of  Asia,  and  in  the  return  the 
merchandises  of  Spain.  The  last  voyage  of  Tarsis  was  celebrated, 
and  of  three  years'  duration. 

The  Phoenicians  for  this  reason  gave  to  the  Beatic  the  name  of 

*  Genesis  x.,  4. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  'OF    AMERICA.  389 

Hesperides,  which  in  their  language  signifies  the  great  part,  the 
excellent  lot.  It  was  for  this  enterprise  that  there  were  strong  ves- 
sels and  great  preparations.  It  was  therefore  not  surprising  that 
the  great  fleets  bore  the  name  of  a  place  very  distant ;  which  did 
not  become  Tarsis  of  Cilicia,  which  was  but  a  very  short  distance 
from  Sidon  and  from  the  coast  of  Syria. 


CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

Ancient  Voyages — Canaanites,  or  Sidonians — Voyages  from  Elath  and  Esion- 
Gaber  to  Tarsis — Josephus  on  Solomon  and  Hiram — Phoenician  Colonies — 
Diodorus's  Description  of  Iberia — Diodorus  on  the  Country  of  Elath  and 
Esion-Gaber,  and  the  Sinus  ^Elanitticus — The  Phoenicians  and  Carthagin- 
ians— Nechos — His  Canal — Phoenicians  Sail  from  the  Red  Sea  around  Africa 
to  Egypt — Commerce  between  Egypt  and  Indifl — The  Voyage  of  Scylax  from 
India  to  Egypt. 

THE  children  of  Canaan  have,  apparently,  like  the  other  families 
issued  from  Ham,  wandered  a  long  time  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia 
before  settling,  as  they  did,  on  the  borders  of  the  Mediterranean, 
which  they  called  the  Great  Sea,  in  apposition  to  the  Reedy  Sea, 
or  Arabic  Gulf,  which  did  not  then  bear  the  name  of  Red  Sea. 

The  descendants  of  Sidon  have  always  remembered  having  dwelt 
on  the  borders  of  the  Red  Sea  before  their  entry  into  Phoenicia. 
What  is  certain  is  that  some  of  these  Canaanites,  or  Sidonians, 
have  always  lived  upon  the  northern  borders  of  the  Red  Sea ;  and 
that  even  in  the  times  when  the  Idumeans  and  afterwards  the 
kings  of  Judea  owned  the  ports  of  Elath  and  Esion-Gaber  the 
Sidonians  always  had  intercourse  with  them,  maintained  sailors 
and  vessels  there,  rendered  themselves  useful  to  all  their  neigh- 
bors by  the  voyages  which  they  made,  not  only  along  the  Arabic 
Gulf,  but  even  beyond  the  Straits  of  Babelmandel  and  along  the 
coasts  of  the  ocean.* 

In  the  times  of  Solomon  the  cities  of  Atsioum-Gaber  (Esion- 
Gaber)  and  Ailath  (Elath)  were  highly-frequented  marts.  The 
Idumeans,  from  whom  the  Jews  only  took  their  ports  at  intervals, 
must  have  found  in  them  a  great  source  of  wealth  and  popula- 
tion. It  even  appears  that  they  rivalled  the  Tyrians,  who  also 
possessed  a  town,  the  name  of  which  is  unknown,  on  the  coast 
of  Hedjaz,  and  the  city  of  Faran,  and,  doubtless,  El-Tor,  which 

*  Pluch. 


390  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

served  it  by  way  of  a  port.  Atsioum-Gaber  and  Ailath  that,  in 
the  time  of  Solomon  and  Hiram,  were  the  busy  marts  of  com- 
merce, have  now  no  shipping  and  carry  on  no  kind  of  commerce.* 
Thus  showing  how  places  now  desert  and  gloomy  with  the  silence 
of  solitude  may  once  have  been  populous  and  prosperous. 

The  Phoenicians  were  not  satisfied  with  the  profits  they  could 
make  along  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean ;  they  also  made  voy- 
ages to  Beatica  or  the  south  of  Spain  by  passing  through  the  Red 
Sea  and  the  ocean.  They  thus  went  round  all  Africa  and  re- 
entered,  either  by  the  Mediterranean  into  these  ports  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  or  by  repassing  around  Africa,  into  those  of  Elath  and  Esion- 
Gaber.  This  last  route  was  for  them  the  most  advantageous.  The 
gain  of  this  course,  which  was  of  three  years,  appeared  so  brilliant 
that  Solomon  and  some  of  his  successors,  having  no  marine  upon 
the  Mediterranean,  established  one  in  the  ports  of  the  Red  Sea. 
The  Jews,  aided  by  the  Phoenicians  and  sometimes  joining  their 
fleet  to  that  which  the  kimgs  of  Tyre  had  upon  the  Red  Sea,  learned 
the  route  to  Ophir,  and  afterwards,  passing  beyond,  doubled  the 
southern  cape  which  we  call  Good  Hope,  and  followed  the  coast 
to  the  Strait  of  Cadiz.  If  they  did  not  return  by  the  Mediterra- 
nean, it  was  not  because  they  had  not  good  ports  upon  their 
coasts;  it  was,  above  all,  because  they  made  immense  profits  in 
exchanging  with  the  foreigners  the  merchandise  of  the  East  on 
their  first  passage,  and  afterwards  in  exchanging,  on  their  return 
along  the  same  coasts,  the  merchandise  of  Beatica. 

The  voyage  to  Ophir  depended  often  upon  that  of  Tarsis,  but 
the  one  was  not  the  other.  Sometimes  they  went  to  seek  the  gold 
of  the  New  Ophir,  which  was  upon  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa, 
and  this  voyage  was  quite  short.  Sometimes  they  made  the  tour 
of  the  whole  continent,  going  to  Cadiz  and  to  Tarsis,  which  were 
at  the  entrance  of  Spain,  and  returning  from  thence  by  the  same 
route,  in  making  again  the  circuit  of  Africa,  in  order  to  double 
their  profits,  and  to  re-enter  their  port  of  Esion-Gaber.  This  was 
the  long  voyage,  which  was  of  three  years'  duration. f 

The  civil  wars  which  occurred  under  Rehoboam  interrupted  the' 
maritime  voyages  which  Solomon  had  undertaken.  The  efforts 
of  Jehoshaphat  and  of  Ozias,  who  wished  to  resume  them,  were 
not  fortunate.  Repeated  storms  in  the  Red  Sea  ruined  their  fleets 
even  in  their  ports,  and  after  this  event  the  Jews  mingled  no  more 
in  foreign  commerce. 

*  Volney's  "Syria." 

t  2  Chronicles,  viii.,  17-18  ;  1  Kings,  ix.,  25,  26,  27,  28  ;  x.,  21,  22,  27  ; 
Ezekiel,  xxvii.,  12,  22,  25. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  OF    AMERICA.  391 

This  famous  Tarsis  of  Andalusia  is  now  no  more.  The  princi- 
pal causes  which  attracted  there  the  merchandise  of  Asia  no 
longer  exist,  but  there  is  nothing  better  attested  in  history  than 
this  commerce.* 

Josephus  says  : — "  Moreover  the  king  (Solomon)  built  many 
ships  in  the  Egyptian  Bay  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  a  certain  place  called 
Esion-Gaber ;  it  is  now  called  Berenice,  and  is  not  far  from  the 
city  of  Elath.  This  country  belonged  formerly  to  the  Jews,  and 
became  useful  for  shipping,  from  the  donations  of  Hiram,  king 
of  Tyre,  for  he  sent  a  sufficient  number  of  men  thither  for  pilots, 
and  such  as  were  skilled  in  navigation,  to  whom  Solomon  gave 
this  command  :  That  they  should  go  along  with  his  own  stewards 
to  the  land  that  of  old  was  called  Ophir,  but  now  the  Aurea  Cher- 
sonesus,  which  belongs  to  India,  to  fetch  him  gold ;  and,  when 
they  had  gathered  four  hundred  talents  together,  they  returned  to 
the  king  again. 

About  the  same  time  (the  visit  of  Sheba)  there  was  brought 
to  the  king  from  the  Aurea  Chersonesus,  a  country  so  called,  pre- 
cious stones  and  pine  trees,  and  these  trees  he  made  use  of  for 
supporting  the  temple  and  the  palace. 

Now  the  weight  of  gold  that  was  brought  home  was  six  hundred 
and  sixty-six  talents,  not  including  the  sums  which  were  brought 
him  by  the  merchants,  nor  what  the  toparchs  and  kings  of  Arabia 
gave  him  in  presents,  and  he  contrived  that  all  his  furniture  of 
vessels  should  be  of  gold,  for  there  was  nothing  then  to  be  bought 
or  sold  for  silver;  for  the  king  had  many  ships  that  lay  upon  the 
sea  of  Tarsus.  These  he  commanded  to  carry  out  all  sorts  of 
merchandize  unto  the  remotest  nations,  by  the  sale  of  which  gold 
and  silver  were  brought  to  the  king,  and  a  great  quantity  of  ivory, 
and  Ethiopians  and  apes,  and  they  finished  their  voyage,  going 
and  returning,  in  three  years1  time."f 

Strabo  places  this  ancient  Tartesse  at  the  mouth  of  the  Beatis, 
now  Guadalquiver.  Stephen  of  Byzantium,  as  Strabo,  placed  it 
at  the  mouth  of  a  river,  which  he  calls  by  the  same  name,  in  a 
country  which  he  calls  Tartesside,  which  they  also  named  Beatica, 
and  afterwards  Andalusia.  The  silver,  tin  and  other  merchandise 
which  for  so  long  a  time  attracted  the  Asiatics,  is  often  found  cited 
conjointly  with  the  names  of  Tartesse  and  Tarsicum  in  Polybius 
and  in  Pliny,  in  the  Latin  historians  and  in  the  poets,  who  make 
brilliant  descriptions  of  it.  Homer  placed  there  the  Elysian 
Fields.  After  the  Carthaginians  the  Romans  finished  with  glean- 
ing the  ruins  of  Tarsis.  There  remains  nothing  there  but  ex- 

*  Pluch.  f  Josephus. 


392  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

hausted  caverns,  and  sometimes  earthen  lamps,  with  some  imple- 
ments of  the  miners. 

We  can  add  to  the  Phoenician  colonies  those  of  the  Carthagin- 
ians who  went  from  Tyre.  They  possessed  much  of  Sicily,  where 
they  had  Lelibeum  and  the  neighboring  towns,  the  little  island 
of  Malta,  all  Sardinia,  the  Isle  of  Corsica,  all  of  which  have  pre- 
served their  ancient  Phoenician  names,  and  the  Balearic  Isles, 
which  are  now  Majorca,  Minorca,  and  Ivica.  They  derive  their 
names  from  two  Phoenician  and  Hebrew  words,  which  signify  mas- 
ters in  the  use  of  the  bow,  and  in  fact  the  Greek  and  Latin  writers 
have  related  prodigies  of  their  dexterity  with  the  bow.* 

Diodorus  mentions  the  island  of  Pityusa,  so  called  from  its  pine 
trees.  It  is  distant  from  the  Herculese  Pillars  three  days'  sailing ; 
from  Africa  a  day  and  a  night ;  from  Iberia  one  day.  It  hath  a 
city  called  Enesus,  a  colony  of  the  Carthaginians,  and  is  inhab- 
ited by  Phoenicians.  This  colony  was  brought  thither  a  hundred 
and  sixty  years  after  the  building  of  Carthage. 

There  are  also  other  islands  opposite  to  Spain,  by  the  inhabi- 
tants and  the  Romans  called  Balearic,  from  the  casting  -of  a  sling 
wherewith  the  inhabitants  sling  stones  more  directly  than  other 
people.  Their  weapons  are  three  slings ;  one  they  wrap  about  the 
heads,  the  other  about  the  middles,  and  the  third  they  hold  in  their 
hands.  In  battle  they  sling  far  greater  stones  than  others  do,  with 
that  force  that  one  would  believe  they  were  shot  out  of  some  en- 
gine. At  the  assault  of  cities  none  can  peep  out  of  their  works 
from  the  walls  but  they  wound  them  with  their  stones,  and  in 
fight  they  dash  to  pieces  shields,  head-pieces,  and  all  kinds  of 
armor.  They  dart  their  stones  so  directly  that  they  do  scarcely 
ever  miss  the  mark. 

The  following  from  Diodorus  confirms  what  has  been  said  of 
the  mineral  wealth  of  Spain  in  ancient  times  : 

"  The  mountains  of  Iberia  (which  were  called  the  Pyrenian)  di- 
vide Gallia  from  Iberia,  and  extend  themselves  through  Celtiberia 
three  thousand  furlongs.  Having  many  woods  in  them,  it  is  said 
that  certain  shepherds  cast  fire  into  them,  and  by  that  means  all 
those  hill-countries  were  burned,  whence  they  affirm  that  these 
mountains  were  called  Pyrenai.  The  fire  lasting  many  days,  sev- 
eral streams  of  silver  came  flowing  down  from  the  mountains  by 
the  force  of  the  flames.  The  inhabitants  not  knowing  what  it  was, 
the  merchants  of  Phoenicia  (giving  in  exchange  for  it  some  trifling 
things)  carried  it  into  Greece  and  Asia  and  other  countries, 
where  they  became  very  rich,  for  they  were  so  greedy  of  it  that 

*  Pluch. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  .OF    AMERICA.  393 

when  they  had  loaded  their  ships  therewith  they  took  the  lead 
from  off  their  anchors  and  put  in  the  silver,  which  remained  in 
the  place  thereof. 

The  Phoenicians  being  enriched  by  this  market,  they  distributed 
several  colonies  into  Sicilia  and  the  neighboring  islands,  and  into 
Lybia,  Sardinia,  and  Iberia. 

The  Iberians  (at  last  coming  to  know  what  silver  was)  gave 
themselves  to  the  getting  of  metals,  and  having  gotten  abundance 
of  excellent  silver  they  made  great  advantage  of  it.  Whereas 
gold,  silver  and  brass  are  the  principal  metals,  they  who  are  em- 
ployed in  getting  of  brass  have  for  themselves  a  fourth  part  of 
what  they  dig ;  they  who  dig  the  silver  receive  for  three  days  an 
Euboic  talent,  for  all  the  land  is  stuffed  with  silver,  so  that  it  is  a 
wonder  to  see  both  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  continual 
labor  of  the  workmen,  for  those  who  most  busied  themselves  in 
getting  of  metals  became  very  rich,  for  the  silver  is  easy  to  come 
by,  the  country  affords  such  plenty  of  it. 

Although  there  be  many  things  in  finding  out  this  art  of  metals 
worthy  of  our  wonder,  yet  let  us  not  marvel  why  none  are  of  later 
invention,  but  were  all  of  them  found  out  by  the  Carthaginians 
when  they  inhabited  Iberia;  hence  it  was  that  they  afterwards  be- 
came so  powerful,  for  with  their  silver  they  hired  the  best  soldiers 
and  managed  several  wars  against  their  enemies.  They  brought 
the  Romans,  the  Sicilians,  and  the  Lybians  into  great  straights, 
although  they  made  use  neither  of  their  own  countrymen  nor  of 
their  confederates  to  fight  for  them,  for  they  were  richer  than  all 
of  them,  by  reason  of  their  abundance  of  gold  and  silver. 

Afterward,  when  the  Romans  had  conquered  the  Iberians,  they 
undertook  for  their  gain  to  work  the  mines,  and  were  much  en- 
riched thereby,  for  they  set  abundance  of  purchased  slaves  to 
work  in  the  mines^  who,  searching  up  and  down  for  the  veins  of 
the  metals,  dug  out  plenty  of  gold  and  silver,  undermining  the 
ground  for  several  furlongs. 

In  Spain  they  that  dig  metals  meet  with  more  than  they  expect, 
for  by  reason  of  the  happiness  of  the  soil  they  find  clots  full  of 
gold  and  silver,  for  all  the  grounds  abound  with  them.  They 
sometimes  meet  with  rivers  running  under  ground  whose  course 
(in  hopes  of  gain)  with  great  labor  they  cut  off,  and,  which  is 
more  strange,  they  turn  them  another  way  by  those  which  they 
call  Egyptian  pumps,  invented  by  Archimedes  when  he  went  into 
Egypt.  By  these  kind  of  instruments  (with  a  great  deal  of  art 
and  diligence)  do  they  drain  the  mines  whence  the  metals  are 
digged,  casting  the  water  upwards. 


394  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

The  slaves  who  are  employed  about  these  metals  bring  to  their 
masters  an  incredible  gain  ;  many  of  them  laboring  night  and 
day  take  so  much  pains  that  they  kill  themselves,  for  they  allow 
them  no  rest  or  intermission  in  their  labor,  but  force  them  by 
stripes  to  labor  continually,  whence  it  happens  that  they  seldom 
live  long ;  yet  some  of  them  that  are  of  strong  bodies  and  vigorous 
spirits  do  continue  a  great  while  in  that  calamity,  who,  notwith- 
standing (such  is  the  miserable  condition  of  their  being)  do  rather 
wish  for  death  than  life. 

There  is,  likewise,  tin  growing  in  several  places  of  Iberia,  not 
found  casually,  as  some  writers  have  affirmed,  but  digged  out  there 
and  forged  as  silver  and  gold,  for  above  Lusitania  they  dig  out 
tin  in  the  islands  next  adjacent  to  the  Iberian  Ocean,  which  from 
tin  are  called  Cassiterides,  yet  most  of  it  is  brought  out  of  Britan- 
nic into  that  part  of  France  which  lies  opposite  to  that  island. 
Thence  the  Celtic  merchants  carried  it  with  horses  by  land  through 
Marsellias  to  the  city  of  Narbona,  a  colony  of  the  Romans,  the 
best  mart  in  all  these  parts  either  for  convenience  or  for  benefit  of 
those  who  come  to  it."* 

Diodorus,  in  his  description  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  countries 
bordering  upon  it,  describes  the  harbors  of  Elath  and  Esion-Gaber. 
He  says :  "  From  the  city  of  Arsinoe,  in  sailing  along  by  the  con- 
tinent on  the  right  hand,  there  is  seen  in  the  plain  country  a  green 
mountain  reasonably  high,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  is  a 
lake  hard  to  pass  over.  Near  thereunto  is  a  great  gulf  named 
Acathartus,  wherein  there  is  a  peninsula^  of  a  narrow  passage, 
which  points  out  to  sailors  the  way  to  the  other  coast  of  Arabia. 

Beyond  the  said  strait  there  is  an  island  called  Opiades,  five 
leagues  in  length.  The  next  shore  to  the  said  island  is  for  the 
most  part  inhabited  by  Ichtheophages  and  by  the  Troglodite 
shepherds,  from  whence  forward  are  nothing  but  mountains  even 
to  the  port  of  Sotera.  From  the  port  of  Sotera  they  cross  into 
Arabia  by  a  sea  and  region  far  different  from  the  other  coast 
whereof  we  have  spoken  ;  for  that  country  is  low  and  plain,  with- 
out any  mountains,  nor  is  the  sea  there  above  two  fathoms  and  a 
half  deep,  and  is  in  color  marvellously  green,  because  the  bottom 
of  it  is  all  covered  over  with  sea-grass.  That  place  is  very  proper 
and  commodious  for  the  navigation  of  small  vessels,  being  subject 
to  no  tempests ;  but  great  ships,  wherein  elephants  are  carried,  as 

*  From  an  English  version  of  Diodorus,  by  H.  C.  Gent,  1653. 

t  Peninsula  probably  should  be  strait.  This  strait  appears  to  have  been  a 
channel,  between  an  island  and  the  main  shore,  which  led  from  one  branch  of  the 
Bed  Sea  to  the  other. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  DF    AMERICA.  395 

well  for  that  they  draw  much  water  of  themselves  as  because  they 
are  deeply  laden,  are  in  great  danger ;  for  they  are  oftentimes 
tossed  by  the  winds  and  driven  against  great  rocks,  or  carried 
into  that  shallow  sea.  The  country  is  altogether  desert  and  un- 
inhabited. Besides  all  these  difficulties  and  perils,  the  flowing 
of  the  waves  of  the  sea  brings  in  a  short  time  so  much  sand  to 
the  ships  as  it  is  environed  as  with  a  rampire. 

In  this  region  there  are  many  rivers  descending  from  the  mount- 
ains called  Prebie,  and  many  spacious  plains  abounding  with  palm- 
trees  of  a  marvellous  height.  The  sea  whereunto  you  afterwards 
descend  is  very  deep,  in  which  there  are  whales  of  an  immeasur- 
able greatness. 

These  uttermost  parts  of  the  Troglodites  are  environed  with 
mountains  named  Psevara;  all  the  rest  of  the  coast  on  the 
other  side  towards  Arabia  from  the  Altars  which  Ariston,  a  gen- 
tleman sent  by  Ptolemy  to  discover  as  far  as  the  ocean,  caused  to 
be  set  up  there  in  honor  of  Neptune,  is  called  Neptunium.  And 
all  the  length  of  this,  so  renowned  Maritime  Region,  is  named  Phe- 
nicia,  from  the  great  abundance  of  Palm  Trees  growing  there, 
which  produce  most  excellent  fruits. 

The  neighboring  country  lying  directly  to  the  south  is  full  of 
fountains.  There  are  so  many  springs  and  streams  of  water  that 
the  earth  is  thereby  always  clothed  with  fresh  green  grass.  There 
is,  moreover,  a  temple  there,  anciently  built  of  hard  stone,  whereon 
are  antique  letters  inscribed,  which  one  cannot  read  nor  understand. 
In  this  temple  is  a  man  and  a  woman,  who  all  their  lifetime  have 
charge  of  the  sacred  things  that  are  there.  In  sailing  from  this 
country  of  Phenicia  straight  forth  to  the  continent  there  is  an 
island  named  the  Island  of  Wild  Beasts,  whereon  there  is  such 
an  excessive  number  of  them  as  is  strange  and  marvellous.  The 
Promontory  which  is  seen  from  this  island  reaches  to  the  place 
called  Petra,  and  joins  to  the-  countries  of  Arabia  and  Palestine. 
To  this  island,  do  they  say,  the  Gerrhei*  and  the  Menei  bring  in- 
cense and  other  odoriferous  gums  from  the  higher  Arabia.  The 
rest  of  all  this  shore  was  possessed  first  by  the  Maranei  and  after- 
wards by  their  neighbors,  the  Garyndai,  who  usurped  the  same. 
That  done,  they  divided  among  themselves  their  (the  Maranei) 
country,  which  was  now  void  of  husbandmen  to  till  and  sow  the 
ground,  and  of  all  that  were  to  keep  and  look  to  the  cattle.  There 
are  few  ports  in  this  region,  but  it  is  divided  by  several  mountains. 

Parting  from  hence,  they  sail  through  the  Gulf  of  Elanita,  which 
is  full  of  villages  and  habitations  of  the  Arabians,  surnamed  Na- 

*  On  the  Persian  Gulf. 


396  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES       [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

bathei,  who  possess  a  great  part  of  the  shore,  and  some  lands  within 
the  continent,  where  are  great  store  of  men  and  cattle.  These 
Nabathei  lived  in  times  past  well  and  justly,  being  contented  with 
the  sustenance  which  their  cattle  furnished  them  abundantly,  but 
afterwards,  when  they  turned  pirates,  and  robbed  the  merchants 
of  Alexandria  sailing  that  way,  with  no  less  inhumanity  than  those 
of  the  Mare  Major  named  Tauryens  used  to  do,  they  were  at  last 
defeated  and  taken  by  certain  galleys,  suffering  deserved  punish- 
ment for  their  misdeeds.* 

Next  unto  the  former  is  a  champaign  and  moist  country,  where, 
by  reason  of  the  abundance  of  springs  that  are  in  it,  Lotan  grows 
to  the  height  of  a  man  ;  and  the  fertility  of  it  is  such  as  it  abounds, 
not  only  with  an  infinite  number  of  sheep  and  cattle,  but  also  with 
herds  of  wild  camels  and  of  red  and  fallow  deer. 

Adjoining  hereunto  is  a  large  arm  of  the  sea,  two-and-thirty 
leagues  broad,  or  thereabout,  which  is  naturally  shut  and  closed 
up  with  many  great  rocks,  and  therefore  hard  to  pass,  for  there  is 
a  mighty  huge  rock,  reaching  far  into  the  sea,  which  keeps  ships 
from  coming  in  or  going  out,  so  that  none  pass  into  it  but  such  as 
in  storms  are  carried,  at  full  sea,  by  the  force  of  the  winds  and 
waves,  over  that  rock.  The  people  which  inhabit  this  coast  are 
called  Banizomines,  and  have  no  other  way  of  living  but  by 
hunting ;  yet  is  the  most  holy  temple,  which  all  the  Arabians 
celebrate  with  much  superstition,  in  their  country. 

Not  far  from  the  Banizomines  are  three  islands,  which  have 
many  ports.  In  the  first  of  them,  that  is  altogether  solitary  and 
desolate,  are  old  foundations  of  a  house  made  of  stone,  and  with 
pillars,  whereon  are  engraven  strange  and  barbarous  letters,  which 
they  say  were  set  there  in  honor  of  Isis.  The  other  two  are  likewise 
uninhabited,  but  fruitful  of  olives,  somewhat  different  from  ours. 

Beyond  these  islands  the  sea  is  full  of  broken  rocks  for  the  space 
of  thirty-two  leagues,  and  there  is  not  in  it  any  haven,  port  or  other 
place  where  one  may  cast  anchor,  so  that,  any  tempest  coming, 
the  seamen  must  of  necessity  suffer  shipwreck.  There  is  hanging 
over  this  sea  a  high,  precipitous  mountain,  at  the  foot  of  which 
are  divers  hollow  caves,  whereinto  the  waves  of  the  sea  entering 
upon  a  storm  yield  a  sound  as  dreadful  as  thunder.  The  Ara- 
bians who  dwell  on  this  shore  are  named  Thomudei. 

*  ' '  The  Nabatheans  are,  in  histories  and  geographies,  placed  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  ports  of  Elana,  or  Elat,  and  Esion-Gaber,  at  the  northern  extremity 
of  the  Gulf  of  Arabia,  sometimes  to  the  east  of  Palestine,  sometimes  to  the  south. 
Their  life,  commonly,  was  not  sedentary  ;  the  most  of  them  camped  or  traded, 
and  changed  their  dwelling." — PLUCH. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  DF    AMERICA.  397 

Next  to  this  perilous  sea  is  a  great  gulf  full  of  little  islands, 
and  all  along  the  shore  are  huge  heaps  of  black  sand  dispersed 
here  and  there.  A  little  lower  down  is  a  peninsula  where  is  one 
of  the  best  ports  that  is  written  of  in  any  history,  called  Charmulta, 
for  under  a  rock  which  lies  directly  to  the  west  the  sea  surpasses 
all  others  for  goodness  and  profit.  Over  it  is  a  very  goodly  moun- 
tain containing  above  six  leagues.  The  entrance  into  the  said 
port  is  fourscore  fathoms  broad,  where  two  thousand  ships  may 
ride.  Moreover,  there  runs  into  it  a  great  river,  and  in  the  midst 
of  it  is  an  island  full  of  good  water  and  apt  for  gardening.  To 
conclude,  it  is  like  the  port  of  Carthage,  called  Cothonum.  It  is 
withal  replenished  with  all  kinds  of  fish,  which  resort  thither 
from  the  main  sea  for  food.  The  sailors  know  it  by  five  high  moun- 
tains, which  are  discerned  afar  off,  separated  one  from  another,  and 
pointed  like  the  pyramids  of  Egypt. 

The  arm  of  the  sea  is  from  thenceforward  round,  and  environed 
with  great  promontories,  in  the  midst  whereof  a  little  long  hill  rises 
up,  in  the  form  of  a  table,  upon  the  which  are  three  marvellous 
temples  consecrated  to  the  honor  of  certain  Gods  unknown  to  the 
Greeks,  however  very  much  reverenced  by  the  inhabitants." 

Such  is  probably  a  description  of  ^Elanitticus  Sinus,  the  eastern 
branch  of  the  Red  Sea,  in  which  branch  were  Esion-Gaber  and 
Elath,  the  ancient  ports  of  the  Phoenicians.  The  temples  here 
erected  to  gods  unknown  to  the  Greeks  were  probably  Hebrew 
temples,  for  the  Greeks  were  not  ignorant  of  the  Phoenician 
gods. 

Different  circumstances  often  determined  the  Phoenicians  to 
establish  elsewhere  new  colonies,  several  of  which  have  become 
very  celebrated.  Sometimes  their  frequent  returns  to  the  places 
where  they  transacted  the  most  business  disposed  the  natives  of 
the  province  to  permit  the  Phoenicians  to  settle  there  among  them, 
preserving  separately  their  language  and  their  laws.  Everywhere 
they  carried  with  them  abundance,  and  provided  the  country  with 
everything.  It  was  thus  that  they  founded  the  famous  Carthage 
in  Africa,  opposite  Sicily.  Sometimes  the  smallness  of  their  ter- 
ritory obliged  them  to  send  abroad  their  too  numerous  progeny, 
who  obtained  willingly  or  by  force  a  favorable  location,  and  formed 
there  new  settlements  at  the  side  of  the  preceding.  It  is  what  oc- 
curred in  the  progress  of  all  those  bands  that  built  Adrumet, 
Clypa3,  Utica,  and  so  many  towns  in  the  environs  of  Carthage. 
These  Carthaginians  carried  everywhere  economy,  the  love  of 
labor,  and  the  spirit  of  traffic.  They  ceased  not  to  be  prosperous 
until  they  became  more  military  than  commercial.  At  other 


398  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

times,  pressed  on  land  by  the  attacks  of  a  powerful  enemy,  these 
Canaanites  boarded  their  vessels,  abandoned  their  country,  and 
went  to  seek  fortune  elsewhere,  as  happened  to  the  Canaanites 
driven  away  by  Joshua,  and  particularly  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Tyre,  when  they  saw  themselves  unable  to  hold  out  against  Neb- 
uchadnezzar and  against  Alexander. 

We  are  entirely  certain  that  they  were  Canaanites  who  have 
peopled  the  coasts  of  Little  Africa,  or  of  Africa  proper,  opposite 
Sicily,  and  a  good  part  of  Sicily  itself.  On  all  the  coast  of  Car- 
thage, on  that  of  Mauritania  as  far  as  the  Strait  of  Cadiz,  they 
generally  speak  the  Punic  or  Tyrennian  language,  which  resem- 
bles in  nearly  every  respect  that  of  the  Hebrew.* 

The  Egyptians  possessed  a  navy  six  hundred  and  ninety-one 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  and  such  was  its  commerce  at  that 
time  that  Necho,  son  of  Psammiticus,  commenced  a  canal  to  con- 
nect the  River  Nile  with  the  Red  Sea.  The  water  entered  it  from 
the  Nile  a  little  above  the  city  of  Bubastis ;  it  terminated  in  the 
Red  Sea  not  far  from  Patumos,  an  Arabian  town.  They  began  to 
sink  the  canal  in  that  part  of  Egypt  which  is  nearest  to  Arabia.  Con- 
tiguous to  it  is  a  mountain  which  stretches  towards  Memphis,  and  con- 
tains quarries  of  stone.  Commencing  at  the  foot  of  this,  it  extends  from 
west  to  east  through  a  considerable  tract  of  country,  and,  ivhere  a  mount- 
ain opens  to  the  south,  is  discharged  into  the  Arabian  Gulf.  From  the 
northern  (Mediterranean)  to  the  southern,  or,  as  it  is  generally 
called,  the  Red  Sea,  the  shortest  passage  is  over  Mount  Casius,  which 
divides  Egypt  from  Syria,  from  whence  to  the  Arabian  Gulf  is  a 
thousand  stadia.  The  way  by  the  canal,  on  account  of  the  different 
circumflexions,  is  considerably  longer.  The  length  of  this  canal  is 
equal  to  a  four  days'  voyage,  and  it  is  wide  enough  to  admit  two  tri- 
remes abreast.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  work  under  Nechos  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  Egyptians  perished.  He 
at  length  desisted  from  the  undertaking,  being  admonished  by  an 
oracle  that  all  his  labor  would  be  turned  to  the  advantage  of  a 
barbarian ;  and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  Egyptians  term  all 
barbarians  who  speak  a  language  different  from  their  own. 

As  soon  as  Nechos  discontinued  his  labors  with  respect  to  the 
canal,  he  turned  all  his  thoughts  to  military  enterprises.  He  built 
vessels  both  on  the  Northern  Ocean  (Mediterranean)  and  in  that 
part  of  the  Arabian  Gulf  which  was  near  the  Red  Sea.  Vestiges 
of  his  naval  undertakings  are  still  to  be  seen  (says  Herodotus). 
His  fleets  were  occasionally  employed,  but  he  also  by  land  con- 

*  The  Abbe  Pluch. 


CHAP.  XXXVIII.]  JOF    AMERICA.  399 

quered  the  Syrians.*  After  a  reign  of  seventeen  years  Nechos 
died,  leaving  the  kingdom  to  his  son  Psammis. 

When  the  vastness  of  this  undertaking  is  considered,  the  in- 
ference is  that  the  commerce  of  Egypt  at  that  date  must  have 
been  very  important  on  the  Red  Sea,  and  what  follows  appears  a 
sufficient  evidence  of  it.  "  Nechos  was  the  first  person  who  proved 
that  the  whole  of  Lybia  (Africa),  except  in  that  particular  part 
which  is  contiguous  to  Asia,  was  surrounded  by  the  sea ;  for,  when 
he  had  desisted  from  his  attempt  to  join  by  a  canal  the  Nile  with 
the  Arabian  Gulf,  he  dispatched  some  vessels  under  the  conduct 
of  Phoenicians  with  directions  to  pass  by  the  Columns  of  Hercules, 
and,  after  penetrating  the  Northern  Ocean,  to  return  to  Egypt,  f 
These  Phoenicians,  taking  their  course  from  the  Red  Sea,  entered 
into  the  Southern  Ocean :  on  the  approach  of  autumn  they  landed 
in  Lybia,  and  planted  some  corn  in  the  place  where  they  happened 
to  find  themselves;  when  this  was  ripe  and  they  had  cut  it  down, 
they  again  departed.  Having  thus  consumed  two  years,  they,  in 
the  third,  doubled  the  Columns  of  Hercules  and  returned  to  Eg3^pt. 
Their  relation  may  obtain  attention  from  others,  but  to  me  it  seems 
incredible ;  for  they  affirm  that,  having  sailed  round  Lybia,  they 
had  the  sun  on  their  right  hand."| 

This  great  canal,  conceived  and  begun  by  Nechos,  was  afterwards 
continued  by  Darius  Hystaspes,  and  finally  finished  by  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus.  The  size  of  the  canal  indicates  the  size  of  the  ves- 
sels that  were  to  pass  through  it,  and  shows  that  even  at  the  time 
of  Nechos  triremes  navigated  the  Red  Sea ;  and  it  is  probable  that, 
even  at  that  day,  navigators  were  acquainted  with  the  monsoon, 
and  that  their  vessels  were  wafted  by  them  from  the  shores  of 
Arabia,  through  the  Erythrian  Sea,  to  those  of  India.  It  is  more 
probable  that  the  Arabians  or  the  Indians  first  discovered  these 
winds,  which  blew  on  their  shores,  than  that  a  Greek  or  Roman, 

*  It  was  Josias,  king  of  Judah. 

t  It  appears,  from  what  follows,  that  the  Phoenicians  reversed  the  order  of 
things,  and  started  from  the  Red  Sea. 

J  Thus  was  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa  doubled  about  twenty-one  hun- 
dred years  before  De  Gama  accomplished  the  same  feat  in  1497.  It  is  worthy 
of  notice  that  the  time  employed  in  this  voyage  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  voy- 
ages in  the  time  of  Solomon  and  Hiram.  As  Herodotus  says,  Nechos  was  the 
first  to  prove  that  Lybia,  or  Africa,  was  surrounded  by  the  sea,  excepting  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez.  He  must  have  been  ignorant  of  the  previous  voyages  of  the 
Phoenicians  around  it.  These  voyages  of  the  Phoenicians  in  the  time  of  Solo- 
mon appeared  to  have  required  three  years,  "  in  going  and  returning," — probably 
should  be  three  years  in  going  and  in  returning,  which  would  make  the  voyage 
from  Elath  to  Tarsis  of  the  same  duration  as  that  of  Nechos' s  voyage. 


400  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXVIII. 

living  on  the  borders  of  the  Mediterranean,  had  discovered  them. 
About  the  year  509  B.  c.  Darius,  son  of  H ystaspes,*  being  desirous 
of  enlarging  his  dominion  eastward,  in  order  to  the  conquering  of 
those  countries,  had  a  design  of  first  making  a  discovery  of  them  ; 
for  which  purpose,  having  built  a  fleet  of  ships  at  Caspatyrus,  a 
city  of  the  river  Indus,  and  as  far  up  upon  it  as  the  borders  of 
Scythia,  he  gave  the  command  of  it  to  Scylax,  a  Grecian  of  Cary- 
andia,  a  city  of  Caria,  and  well  skilled  in  maritime  affairs,  and 
sent  him  down  the  river  to  make  the  best  discoveries  he  could  of 
all  the  parts  that  lay  on  its  banks  on  either  side,  ordering  him 
for  this  end  to  sail  down  the  current  until  he  should  arrive  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river;  and  that  then,  passing  through  its  mouth  into 
the  Southern  Ocean,  he  should  shape  his  course  westward,  and  that 
way  return  home;  which  orders  he  having  exactly  executed,  he 
returned  by  the  Strait  of  Babelmandel  and  the  Red  Sea,  and  on  the 
thirtieth  month  after  his  first  setting  out  from  Caspatyrus  landed 
in  Egypt  at  the  same  place  from  whence  Nechos,  king  of  Egypt, 
formerly  sent  out  the  Phoenicians  to  sail  round  the  coasts  of  Africa, 
which,  it  is  most  likely,  was  the  port  where  now  the  town  of  Suez 
stands,  at  the  hither  end  of  the  Red  Sea.  And  from  thence  he  went 
to  Susa,  and  there  gave  Darius  an  account  of  all  the  discoveries 
which  he  had  made.  After  this,  Darius  entered  India  with  an 
army,  brought  all  that  large  country  under  him,f  "  and  became 
master  of  that  ocean." 

"  It  is  stated  that  after  the  foundation  of  Alexandria  the  Indian 
trade  was  almost  entirely  carried  on  by  the  merchants  of  that  city. 
Few  ships,  however,  appear  to  have  sailed  from  Alexandria  till 
the  discovery  of  the  monsoons  by  Hippalus,  and  the  Arabians 
supplied  Alexandria,  as  they  had  previously  done  the  Phoenicians, 
with  the  products  of  India."  It  is  more  than  probable  that  Scy- 
lax, during  the  reign  of  Darius,  made  his  voyage  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Indus  to  Egypt  by  means  of  the  monsoon.  Nearchus, 
during  the  reign  of  Alexander,  made  his  vo3rage  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Indus  to  that  of  the  Euphrates  by  the  monsoon,  and  the 
Arabians  here  spoken  of  either  shipped  their  Indian  products 
from  the  ports  of  that  country  or  were  supplied  with  them  by  In- 
dian vessels  from  those  ports.  It  thus  appears  that  before  Hip- 
palus navigators  used  the  monsoons  of  the  Erythrean  Sea.  Dio- 
dorus  says  vessels  from  all  parts  of  the  world  resorted  most  of  all 
to  Potana,  built  by  Alexander,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus. 

*  Ascended  the  throne  521  B.  c. 
f  Prideaux,  "Herodotus." 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  401 


CHAPTER    XXXIX. 

Alexander  Prepares  to  Leave  India— The  Voyage  of  Nearchus  from  the  Indus 
to  the  Euphrates — The  Ichthyophagi — Whales — The  Coast  of  Susa — Alex- 
ander Sails  up  the  Tigris — Alexander  at  Babylon — His  Great  Naval  Prepa- 
rations and  Grand  Scheme,  Expeditions  and  Colonies — Ptolemy  Philadel- 
phus — The  India  Voyage  and  Trade. 

AT  the  time  of  Alexander's  reign  (336  to  324  B.  c.)  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  borders  of  the  Indus  were  a  seafaring  people  and 
built  triremes,  and  even  from  remotest  historical  times  the  Indians 
were  a  seafaring  people,  and  had  early  commercial  maritime  re- 
lations with  the  inhabitants  of  the  Indian  Archipelago. 

When  Alexander  had  made  ready  on  the  banks  of  the  Hydaspes 
many  biremes  and  triremes,  with  several  vessels  for  carrying 
horses,  and  all  other  things  necessary  for  conveying  his  army,  he 
resolved  to  sail  down  the  river  till  he  came  into  the  ocean.  The 
number  of  triremes  which  composed  a  part  of  his  navy  was,  ac- 
cording to  Ptolemy,*  about  eighty,  but  the  whole  number  of  ves- 
sels, those  employed  for  horses  and  others  built  then  as  well  as 
before,  amounted  to  nearly  two  thousand.  The  rowers  and  pilots 
of  his  vessels  were  carefully  chosen  out  from  among  the  Phoeni- 
cians, Cyprians,  Carians  and  Egyptians  who  followed  his  army 
and  were  fit  for  that  purpose.  Nearchus  was  appointed  admiral 
over  the  whole  navy,  and  Onesicritus  captain  of  the  single  ship 
where  the  king  was.  When  the  fleet  arrived  at  the  confluence  of 
the  Acesines  and  Indus  it  was  joined  by  divers  triremes  and  ves- 
sels of  burden  which  had  been  built  among  the  Xathri,  a  free 
people  of  India. 

Elephants  were  ferried  over  the  Indus  in  some  of  these  vessels, 
probably  in  those  that  were  made  to  carry  horses.  This  circum- 
stance indicates  the  size  and  strength  of  some  of  these  vessels. 

Alexander  established  colonies  and  built  docks  and  havens  at 
several  places  along  the  Indus.  His  whole  proceeding  indicated 
'an  intention  of  permanent  settlement  and  future  commercial  in- 
tercourse. The  people  of  the  lower  Indus  were  acquainted  with 
the  channels,  knew  the  ocean  tides,  currents  and  winds,  and  the 
most  favorable  time  for  sea  navigation,  a  knowledge  of  all  of  which 

*  Ptolemy,  son  of  Logus,  and  surnamed  Soter  Onesicritus,  and  Nearchus, 
were  officers  in  Alexander's  expedition  to  India,  and  each  wrote  an  account  of 
it.  Arrian  lived  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian,  two  hundred  years  after  Alexander. 

26 


402  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

Alexander  had  acquired  from  them,  and  also  had  carefully  ex- 
amined both  principal  branches  of  the  Indus  that  flowed  into  the 
sea. 

As  soon,  therefore,  as  the  Etesian  or  anniversary  winds  ceased, 
which  on  these  coasts  blew  from  the  sea  towards  the  land  the 
whole  summer,  and  thereby  rendered  navigation  (outward)  imprac- 
ticable during  that  time,  they  began  their  voyage  (325  B.  c.),  and 
Nearchus  safely  conducted  the  fleets  from  the  mouths  of  the  Indus 
to  those  of  the  Euphrates  and  up  that  river  to  Babylon,  a  route 
by  which  probably,  in  previous  ages,  the  commerce  of  India  had 
flowed  into  the  great  metropolis  of  the  ancient  world  when  in  the 
height  of  its  grandeur  and  glory,  for  at  this  time  it  was  on  its  de- 
cline and  decay. 

The  accounts  of  this  voyage  of  Nearchus,  which  show  how  the 
ancients  travelled  by  sea,  are  among  the  most  ancient  in  which 
the  particulars  of  a  voyage  are  given,  and  they  contain  some  im- 
portant facts  that  are  deserving  of  notice  here.  When  the  fleet 
had  nearly  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Arabius  they  "  left  a 
certain  island  on  their  left  hand,  which  is  so  near  joining  the  main- 
land that  the  channel  which  separates  them  seems  to  have  been  cut 
through.  That  day  they  sailed  about  seventy  stadia.  The  shore 
all  along  the  continent  was  full  of  thick  woods,  and  the  island  op- 
posite thereto  was  also  woody.  About  break  of  day  they  departed 
thence  and  passed  through  the  above-mentioned  channel  by  the  help 
of  the  tides,  and  after  a  course  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  stadia 
arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Arabius,  where  they  found  a 
large  and  safe  harbor,  but  no  fresh  water,  because  the  tide  flows  a 
great  way  up  the  river  and  makes  it  brackish  ;  wherefore  passing 
about  forty  stadia  up  the  river  they  came  to  a  lake,  the  water  of 
which  being  sweet,  they  took  what  they  wanted  and  returned. 

The  island  opposite  to  this  haven  is  high  land  and  uncultivated, 
but  round  it  are  vast  quantities  of  oysters  and  all  kinds  of  fish, 
which  make  it  frequented  by  fishermen.  Thus  far  the  country 
of  Arabii  extends  itself,  being  the  last  part  of  India  that  way,  for  the 
Oritae  inhabit  the  other  side  of  the  river.* 

At  Cabana  they  arrived  in  the  evening,  but  because  the  shore 
was  rocky  and  unsafe  they  were  forced  to  lie  off  at  sea.  Here  a 
violent  storm  arose,  by  which  two  long  ships  and  one  small  bark  were 
lost,  but  the  men  saved  themselves  by  swimming,  for  it  was  not 
far  from  land.  Leaving  that  place  about  midnight,  after  they  had 
gained  two  hundred  stadia  they  arrived  at  Cocala,  where  the 

*  It  thus  appears  that  India  extended  on  both  sides  of  the  Indus.  By  some, 
the  Indus  is  made  its  western  boundary. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.J  OF    AMERICA.  403 

sailors  rested  themselves  upon  shore  while  the  ships  rode  at 
anchor  at  sea,  and  lest  they  should  be  exposed  to  the  insults  of 
enemies  a  trench  was  made  round  the  place  of  their  encampment. 
Nearchus  and  his  men  were  ten  days  employed  in  bringing  suffi- 
cient stores  onboard  the  fleet  and  in  refitting  the  ships  that  had 
been  shattered  by  storms. 

Thence  with  a  fair  wind  they  sailed  about  five  hundred  stadia, 
until  they  came  to  a  certain  river  called  Tomerus,  at  whose  en- 
trance into  the  ocean  was  a  lake  nigh  the  shore.  The  inhabitants 
of  these  parts  dwelt  in  small  huts,  and  had  spears  six  cubits 
long,  the  points  of  which  were  sharpened  and  hardened  in 
fire,  so  as  to  be  able  to  do  good  execution.  Their  number  was 
about  six  hundred.  Nearchus  with  his  men  attacked  these  sav- 
ages, many  of  whom  were  slain  in  their  flight  and  many  taken  ; 
the  rest  fled  to  the  mountains.  Those  who  were  taken  were  found 
to  be  hairy  all  over  their  bodies,  their  nails  sharp  and  long,  like 
those  of  wild  beasts.  They  had  no  iron  among  them,  and  made 
use  of  sharp  stones  to  cut  hard  wood,  and  the  skins  of  wild  beasts 
or  those  of  large  fish  served  them  for  clothing. 

Here  Nearchus  ordered  the  ships  to  be  drawn  on  shore,  and  those 
that  were  damaged  to  be  repaired,  and  then,  proceeding  on  the 
voyage,  the  sixth  day  they  sailed  six  hundred  stadia  and  arrived 
at  the  utmost  limits  of  the  country  of  the  Orita3.  The  Oritse,  who 
inhabit  the  inland  parts,  are  clothed  as  the  Indians  and  use  the 
same  weapons,  but  their  language  and  customs  are  different.  The 
length  of  this  whole  voyage  from  the  mouth  of  the  river  Indus 
along  the  coast  of  the  Arabii  is  one  thousand  stadia,  and  the 
length  of  the  coast  of  the  Oritse  sixteen  hundred  stadia. 

After  the  Oritse  the  first  country  that  presents  itself  along  the 
coast  is  that  of  the  Gadrosii,  beyond  whom  dwell  the  Ichthyo- 
phagi,  or  fish-eaters,  along  whose  coasts  they  passed.  They  arrived 
at  Caloma,  a  village  near  the  shore,  where  they  refreshed  them- 
selves, and  where  they  found  some  dates  and  green  figs.  There 
was  an  island  about  one  hundred  stadia  from  the  shore,  called 
Gamine,  where  Nearchus  received  gifts  and  hospitable  entertain- 
ment from  the  villages;  their  presents  were  cattle  and  fish.  The 
flesh  of  their  cattle  eats  fishy,  not  much  unlike  to  sea-fowl,  for 
they  feed  altogether  upon  fish,*  there  being  no  grass  upon  the 

*  The  Hon.  George  Keppel,  captain  in  the  East  India  Company's  service,  in 
his  "Journey  from  India  to  England,"  in  the  year  1824,  says:  "We  had  an 
opportunity  of  ascertaining  the  excellent  flavor  of  the  beef,  mutton  and  kid  of 
Muscat,  which,  in  common  with  cattle  of  every  description,  are  fed  on  dates, 
fish  and  the  seed  of  the  cotton-plant.  Strange  to  say,  these  animals  thrive  un- 


404  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

island.  The  next  day,  passing  two  hundred  stadia  further,  they 
put  to  shore,  and  found  a  village  thirty  stadia  up  the  country, 
called  Cysa,  though  the  name  of  the  coast  be  Carbis.  But  there 
was  no  corn  there,  and  the  army  on  board  began  to  be  in  want  of 
that;  however,  they  caught  some  goats,  and  having  brought  them 
on  board,  departed.  Thence,  sailing  round  a  certain  rocky  prom- 
ontory which  reaches  one  hundred  and  fifty  stadia  out  into  the 
sea,  they  came  to  a  safe  haven,  where  dwelt  many  fishermen,  and 
where  was  plenty  of  fresh  water ;  its  name  was  Mosarna. 

Here,  Nearchus  tells  us,  he  took  in  a  pilot,  to  direct  them  how  to 
steer  their  course  along  these  coasts,  a  Gadrosian,  who  promised  him 
to  conduct  the  fleet  safe  to  Carmania.  All  this  shore  from  hence  to 
the  Gulf  of  Persia  is  less  difficult  to  be  passed,  though  much  more 
famous  in  story,  than  those  he  had  already  passed.  The  fleet,  there- 
fore, moved  from  Mosarna  by  night,  arrived  on  the  coast  of  Balo- 
mus,  and  then  to  a  village  called  Barna,  where  were  many  palm 
trees,  and  gardens  stored  with  myrtles  and  various  sorts  of  flow- 
ers. Here  they  first  found  fruit-trees,  and  men  somewhat  less 
savage  than  any  they  had  niet  since  the  beginning  of  their  voy- 
age. Thence  they  came  to  Dendrobosa,  where  the  fleet  lay  at 
anchor  some  time.  Thence  they  gained  the  haven  of  Caphonla, 
where  many  fishermen  resided,  who  made  use  of  small  slight 
boats,  and  rowed  with  paddles,  which  the}7  thrusted  into  the 
water  as  diggers  do  their  spades  into  the  earth.  Arrived  at  Cyiza, 
they  cast  anchor  and  refreshed  themselves.  Five  hundred  stadia 
further  they  arrived  at  a  small  town,  which  they  surprised,  and 
forced  the  inhabitants  to  show  them  all  the  stores  of  corn  they 
had.  When  they  had  shown  them  all  their  stock  they  took  what 
they  had  occasion  for,  consisting  of  fish  dried  and  ground  to 
powder,  but  of  little  wheat  or  barley,  for  the  inhabitants  made 
use  of  powdered  dried  fish  for  bread,  and  of  wheat  bread  for 
meat.  They  arrived  at  Canasis,  a  city  in  ruins,  where  they  found 
a  well  ready  dug,  and  some  palm-trees  overshadowing  it,  the  ten- 
derest  parts  of  the  tops  of  which  they  shred  small  and  ate,  for 
they  now  began  to  be  in  great  want  of  bread.  They,  therefore, 
hoisted  sail  again  and  sailed  all  that  night  and  the  next  day 
along  a  barren  coast  and  then  cast  anchor,  Nearchus  being  afraid 
to  suffer  them  to  land,  lest  they  should  take  that  opportunity  to 

der  this  peculiar  diet ;  their  flesh  is  not  affected  by  any  fishy  savor,  and  the 
butter  was  the  best  I  had  tasted  since  leaving  England.  The  inhabitants  of 
this  and  the  opposite  coast  subsist  almost  entirely  upon  fish,  not  having  altered 
in  this  respect  since  the  time  of  Herodotus,  who  describes  them  as  the  Ichthyo- 
phagi,  or  Fish  eaters." 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  (   OF    AMERICA.  405 

leave  their  ships,  because  they  began  to  despair  of  safety  by  sea. 
Thence  departing,  they  proceeded  to  Canates,  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  stadia  distant,  and  sailing  thence,  because  it  was  a  flat 
shore  and  everywhere  separated  by  small  ditches  or  rills  of  water, 
they  came  to  Trsesi,  a  country  about  eight  hundred  stadia  further, 
where  they  found  a  little  corn  and  palm-fruits,  and  seized  upon 
seven  camels,*  that  they  immediately  killed  and  ate  their  flesh. 
Thence,  continuing  their  voyage,  they  sailed  to  Dagesira,  which 
place  a  certain  wandering  colony  then  possessed ;  whence  depart- 
ing they  sailed  that  whole  night^  and  the  next  day,  without  cast- 
ing anchor  or  taking  any  rest  on  shore,  and  having  thus  proceeded 
eleven  hundred  stadia,  they  passed  the  utmost  limits  of  the  coun- 
try of  the  Ichthyophagi,  and  were  forced  to  cast  anchor  in  the 
open  sea.  The  whole  length  of  this  country  of  the  Ichthyophagi, 
as  they  computed  it  by  this  voyage,  is  ten  thousand  stadia. 

Vast  store  of  crabs  and  oysters  and  all  sorts  of  shell-fish  are 
found  on  the  coasts  of  the  Ichthyophagi.  The  inhabitants  build 
their  houses  in  this  manner :  they  gather  up  the  bones  of  whales, 
or  such  other  large  fish  as  they  find  cast  up  upon  the  shore,  and 
use  the  smaller  bones  for  rafters  and  those  of  a  larger  size  for 
door-posts.  Whales  of  a  vast  bulk  are  often  seen  in  these  foreign 
seas.  Nearchus  tells  us  that  in  their  voyage  near  Cyiza  he  saw 
the  water  one  morning  forced  upwards  in  a  violent  manner,  and 
rising  aloft  from  the  sea  as  if  hoisted  up  by  a  whirlwind ;  and 
when  the  mariners  were  surprised  at  the  strangeness  of  the  sight 
and  inquired  of  the  pilots  what  could  be  the  cause  thereof,  they 
were  answered  that  fish  sporting  in  the  sea  spouted  forth  water  to 
that  vast  height;  whereupon  they  were  seized  with  so  much  fear 
that  they  suffered  the  oars  to  fall  out  of  their  hands.  However, 
the  admiral  encouraged  them,  and  ordered  them  whenever  they 
perceived  any  of  these  monstrous  fish  approach  to  direct  the  beaks 
of  their  ships  exactly  towards  them,  as  if  they  were  going  to  engage 
an  enemy  in  a  sea-fight,  as  also  to  row  stoutly  and  to  make  as  loud 
a  noise  as  they  could,  as  well  with  their  voices  as  their  oars.  The 
mariners  thus  instructed,  recovered  from  their  fright,  and,  upon 
the  signal  given,  plied  their  oars  manfully,  and  when  they  came 
near  the  fish  not  only  shouted  as  loud  as  possible,  but  sounded 
their  trumpets  and  beat  the  sea  vehemently  with  their  oars ;  where- 
upon the  whales,  which  were  seen  just  under  the  beaks  of  their 
ships,  terrified  with  the  strangeness  of  the  sounds,  sank  down  to 
the  bottom  of  the  deep,  and,  rising  again  at  some  distance,  began 

*  So  camels  existed  in  this  region  before  the  Arabs  conquered  it. 
f  Many  times  they  sailed  during  the  night,  probably  by  moonlight  and  star- 
light, and  because  they  found  it  cooler  and  more  convenient. 


406  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

to  spout  forth  the  water  as  before.  Some  of  these  whales  are  left 
ashore  in  several  parts  of  that  coast  (when  the  tide  falls  away) 
entangled  in  the  shallows,  others  are  thrown  ashore  by  the  vio- 
lence of  the  storms,  and  when  their  bodies  are  consumed  and  their 
flesh  washed  away,  the  bones  of  the  skeleton  serve  the  inhabitants 
instead  of  timber  wherewith  to  build  their  houses ;  for  many  of 
these  whales  grow  to  the  length  of  a  hundred  cubits.* 

After  Nearchus,  with  the  fleet  under  his  command,  had  passed 
the  coast  of  the  Ichthyophagi  they  came  to  Carmania,  and  anchored 
their  ships  in  the  sea,  because  the  shore  there  was  rocky  and  dan- 
gerous. Thence,  when  they  arrived  at  Badis,  a  well-cultivated  part 
of  Carmania,  they  found  plenty  of  fruit-trees,  and  also  great  store 
of  vines  and  corn.  Thence  proceeding  eight  hundred  stadia  they 
touched  upon  a  shore  wholly  waste.  From  this  place  they  saw  a 
huge  promontory  stretched  out  a  vast  way  into  the  ocean,  which 
seemed  about  a  day's  sail  away  from  them.  Those  who  under- 
stood the  situation  of  the  country  affirmed  that  this  promontory 
belonged  to  Arabia,  and  was  called  Maceta,  and  that  cinnamon 
and  other  fragrant  spices  were  conveyed  thence  to  the  Assyrians. 
From  this  shore,  where  the  fleet  lay  at  anchor,  and  the  promon- 
tory which  they  then  saw  before  them,  the  Gulf  of  Persia,  which 
some  call  the  Red  Sea  (Erythriari),  has  its  beginning. 

The  fleet  moving  thence,  and  passing  along  the  shore  the  dis- 
tance of  seven  hundred  stadia,  came  to  another  coast  called  Neop- 
tana,  and  a  hundred  stadia  farther  arrived  at  a  town  called  Har- 
mozia,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Anamis,  in  a  country  pleasant 
and  agreeable,  and  abounding  in  everything  except  olives.  Here, 
going  ashore,  they  gladly  refreshed  themselves.  In  the  meanwhile, 
some  of  them  roving  farther  than  ordinary  into  the  country,  found 
a  certain  person  there  dressed  after  the  Greek  manner,  who  spoke 
Greek.  They  asked  him  who  he  was  and  how  he  came  thither. 
He  replied  that  he  was  a  Grecian  who  had  wandered  from  Alex- 
ander's camp,  and  that  the  king  and  his  whole  army  were  not  far 
distant.  He  was  thereupon  conducted  to  Nearchus,  and  told  him 
that  the  army  lay  encamped  about  five  days'  journey  from  that 
place.f  He  also  proposed  to  bring  the  governor  of  that  province 

*  From  this  notice  of  whales,  the  inference  is  that  there  were  no  whales  in 
the  Mediterranean.  But  these  men  who  were  so  frightened  at  the  sight  of  them 
may  have  been  landsmen  unused  to  the  sea.  There  were  whales  in  the  Red  Sea, 
and  the  Egyptian  sailors,  in  all  probability,  were  acquainted  with  them,  for  they 
navigated  that  sea. 

t  Alexander,  with  one  division  of  his  army,  went  by  land  from  India  to 
Suza,  marching  near  the  sea,  while  another  division  marched  more  in  the  in- 
terior. The  division  under  Alexander  suffered  greatly  from  famine  and  thirst, 
and  many,  from  these  causes,  perished. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  .OF    AMERICA.  407 

to  Nearchus,  and  did  so,  accordingly.  He  consulted  with  him  how 
he  should  go  to  the  king  by  land,  which  done,  they  went  on  board 
the  fleet  together.  Early  next  morning  he  ordered  the  ships  to  be 
drawn  on  shore,  partly  to  repair  whatever  was  broken  or  shattered 
during  the  voyage,  and  partly  because  he  determined  to  land  most 
of  the  forces  there ;  wherefore  he  took  care  to  run  a  double  ram- 
part and  ditch  round  to  secure  them,  and  made  a  deep  ditch 
from  the  bank  of  the  river  to  that  part  of  the  shore  where  the 
whole  navy  lay. 

In  the  meantime,  while  Nearchus  was  making  preparations  for 
his  journey,  the  governor  imagined  he  should  be  royally  rewarded 
if  he  carried  to  Alexander  the  first  news  that  the  army  was  safe 
and  Nearchus  on  his  way  thither ;  wherefore  taking  the  nearest 
road  he  came  to  Alexander  and  told  him  the  story.  The  king  was 
rejoiced  at  the  news,  and  men  with  horses  and  chariots  who  were 
dispatched  to  seek  and  bring  Nearchus,  met  him  and  Archias  on 
their  way  with  no  more  than  five  or  six  attendants.  At  the  first 
sight  they  knew  neither  of  them,  they  were  so  much  altered  and 
looked  so  differently  from  what  they  had  formerly  done.  The 
hair  of  their  heads  and  their  beards  hung  down  in  a  negligent 
manner ;  their  faces  were  weather-beaten,  swarthy,  and  sunburnt, 
and  their  bodies  emaciated  with  much  watching  and  hard  labor. 
When  Nearchus  asked  them  the  way  to  Alexander's  camp  they 
gave  him  directions  and  marched  straight  forward,  but  Archias, 
imagining  on  what  errand  they  were  sent,  turned  to  Nearchus  and 
said  '  Let  us  make  ourselves  known  to  them,  and  inquire  the  reason 
of  their  journey  this  way.'  This  advice  pleasing  Nearchus,  they 
asked  them  whither  they  intended  to  travel,  and  received  answer 
that  they  were  sent  in  search  of  Nearchus  and  the  army  on  board 
the  fleet,  to  whom  he  immediately  replied  '  I  am  Nearchus,  and 
this  man  is  Archias  ;  be  ye,  therefore,  our  guides  to  the  camp,  and 
we  will  satisfy  the  king  concerning  the  safety  of  both.'  Taking 
them,  therefore,  into  their  chariots,  they  returned  towards  the 
camp. 

When  the  king  was  informed  that  Nearchus,  Archias  and  only 
five  more  of  their  companions  approached,  he  imagined  that  by 
some  extraordinary  providence  they  were  preserved,  but  that  the 
army  on  board  the  fleet  was  lost,  and  therefore  his  joy  for  their 
preservation  could  hardly  balance  the  grief  he  endured  for  the 
supposed  loss  of  the  fleet.  But  when  Nearchus  arrived  and  made 
known  to  the  king  that  his  army  and  navy  were  both  safe,  and 
that  he  had  come  as  a  messenger  of  their  safe  arrival,  the  king's 
sorrow  was  turned  to  joy. 


408  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.   XXXIX. 

The  king  spoke  to  him  to  this  effect :  '  I  will  henceforth  no 
more  expose  thee,  0  Nearchus,  to  fresh  toils  and  hazards,  but  will 
depute  some  other  to  convey  the  fleet  to  Susa.'  To  whom  Near- 
chus replied  :  '  I  desire,  and  am  in  duty  bound,  to  obey  my  sov- 
ereign in  all  things,  but  if  you  will  show  me  any  favor,  let  me 
obtain  this  my  earnest  request  to  preside  over  the  fleet  and  army 
on  board  till  they  be  safe  at  Susa ;  and  as  I  have  with  great  dan- 
ger and  hazards  brought  them  thus  far,  let  not  another  reap  the 
glory  of  my  toils  and  finish  what  is  now  easy  and  delightful.' 

Whilst  he  was  thus  speaking,  Alexander  told  him  to  take  heart, 
for  his  request  was  granted,  and  so  dismissed  him  with  a  slender 
guard  to  his  ships,  because  they  were  not  to  pass  through  an 
enemy's  country ;  wherefore  making  what  haste  they  could  they 
at  last  arrived  safe  at  the  sea-shore. 

They  left  that  port  (Harmozia),  and  after  passing  by  a 
small  island,  rocky  and  barren,  called  Organia,*  they  arrived 
and  landed  at  a  large  and  well-inhabited  island,  called  Oaracta, 
about  three  hundred  stadia  from  the  place  whence  they  had 
sailed  (Harmozia).  It  produces  plenty  of  vines,  palm-trees,  and 
corn,  and  was  fully  eight  hundred  stadia  in  length.  The  governor 
thereof  freely  offered  Nearchus  his  services  both  as  a  companion 
and  a  pilot  in  his  voyage  to  Susa.  In  this  island  the  sepulchre  of 
the  first  monarch  thereof  is  said  still  to  remain,  and  that  his  name 
was  Erythras,  and  from  him  the  sea  was  called  Mare  Erythrasum. 
Thence  they  sailed  about  two  hundred  stadia  farther,  and  arrived 
at  another  port  in  the  same  island,  and  thence  they  had  the  pros- 
pect of  another  island,  about  forty  stadia  distant,  which  was  said 
to  be  sacred  to  Neptune,  and  was  inaccessible.  They  departed 
thence  early  in  the  morning,  but  experienced  so  furious  a  storm 
that  three  of  their  ships  were  forced  on  the  shallows,  but  after- 
wards got  off  and  joined  the  fleet  the  next  day.  They  all  finally 
arrived  at  Tarsias,  a  promontory  that  runs  far  out  into  the  sea, 
and  sailing  thence  three  hundred  stadia  arrived  at  Catea,  a  barren 
and  rocky  island  into  which  sheep  and  goats  are  yearly  conveyed 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  parts,  as  an  offering  to  Mercury 
and  Venus,  to  whom  the  island  is  sacred.f 

Thus  far  Carmania  extends.  The  length  of  this  voyage  along 
the  coast  of  Carmania  is  thirty-seven  hundred  stadia.  The  Car- 
manians  live  after  the  Persian  manner,  as,  being  their  next  neigh- 
bors, they  use  the  same  arms  and  observe  the  same  martial  disci- 

*  See  note  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

f  Mercury,  the  god  of  Commerce,  may  have  some  significance  here,  though 
not  a  Persian  god. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  409 

pline.  The  fleet  sailed  thence  and  came  to  Has,  upon  the  Persian 
shore,  opposite  to  which  is  an  island  named  Ciacandrus.  The 
next  morning  they  arrived  at  an  inhabited  island  wherein,  as  in 
the  Indian  Ocean,  Nearchus  assures  us  pearls  are  found.  Having 
passed  the  utmost  point  of  this  island,  which  was  forty  stadia  far- 
ther, they  found  there  a  convenient  station  for  their  fleet.  Thence 
they  sailed  to  Ochus,  a  high  mountain  or  promontory,  where  they 
found  a  haven  safe  from  storms.  Steering  thence  four  hundred 
and  fifty  stadia,  they  arrived  at  Apostani,  where  they  found  many 
ships  at  anchor,  and  where  was  a  village  about  sixty  stadia  from 
the  shore.  Thence  renewing  their  voyage  by  night,  and  having 
gained  four  hundred  stadia,  they  came  to  a  noted  bay,  where  were 
many  villages,  and  where  they  lay  at  anchor  nigh  the  foot  of  a 
mountain.  The  country  thereabouts  produces  palms  and  other 
fruit-bearing  trees,  as  good  and  in  as  great  plenty  as  Greece. 
Thence  they  passed  on  about  six  hundred  stadia  farther,  and  ar- 
rived at  Gogana,  a  country  well-inhabited ;  they  anchored  the  fleet 
at  the  mouth  of  a  certain  small  brook  or  river  called  Areon,  a  sta- 
tion dangerous  enough,  the  entrance  thereto  being  extremely  nar- 
row, and  almost  choked  up  with  the  sand.  Thence  they  pro- 
ceeded to  the  mouth  of  another  river  named  Sitacus.  They  found 
here  a  safe  station.  The  whole  voyage  along  the  Persian  coast 
was  among  rocks  and  shallows  ;  the  shore  itself  was  low,  marshy 
ground.  There  Nearchus  found  plenty  of  corn,  which  the  king 
had  purposely  conveyed  thither  for  the  sustenance  of  the  army  on 
board.  Here  they  tarried  twenty-one  days,  and  not  only  drew  all 
their  crazy  and  weather-beaten  ships  on  shore,  and  repaired  them, 
but  refitted  some  which  were,  at  first  sight,  judged  incapable  of 
proceeding  farther. 

Then  again  putting  to  sea,  they  arrived  at  Hieratis,  a  place  well 
inhabited,  where  they  drew  their  fleet  up  into  a  canal  called  Hera- 
temis,  and  departing  thence  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Podar- 
gus.  This  country,  which  is  a  peninsula  and  called  Mesambria, 
they  found  stored  with  gardens,  and  in  them  fruit  of  all  kinds. 
Thence  sailing  about  two  hundred  stadia  they  arrived  at  Taoce, 
nigh  the  mouth  of  the  river  Granis;  about  two  hundred  stadia  up 
this  river,  in  the  inland  parts,  is  a  palace  of  the  Persian  monarchs. 
Thence  progressing,  they  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Ra- 
gonis,  where  was  a  safe  haven  ;  and  still  farther  they  came  to  the 
mouth  of  another  river,  Brizana,  where  they  had  an  unsafe  sta- 
tion because  of  the  numerous  rocks  and  shelves  thereabouts. 
While  the  tide  flowed  in  they  rode  well  enough,  but  when  it 
ebbed  they  stuck  fast  among  the  shallows.  However  the  next 


410  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

tide  they  sailed  thence,  and  anchored  at  the  mouth  of  the  river 
Arosis,  the  largest  of  all  that  they  had  observed  during  the  whole  sea- 
voyage.  The  Persian  territories  extend  to  this  river  and  no  farther, 
those  of  Susa  beginning  on  the  other  side.  The  whole  coast  of 
Persia  is  four  thousand  four  hundred  stadia  in  length. 
•  From  the  mouth  of  the  river  Arosis  the  fleet  entered  upon  the 
country  of  Susa.  All  the  tract  of  sea  along  that  coast  is  shallow 
water,  and  rocky,  so  that  no  haven  can  be  gained  without  danger. 
As  their  pilots  had  assured  them  that  no  fresh  water  was  to  be  pro- 
cured along  that  coast,  they  therefore,  while  they  lay  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river,  took  in  a  supply  of  fresh  water  for  five  days.  From 
this  place  Nearchus  tells  us  he  cannot  give  such  a  certain 
account  of  all  occurrences  relating  to  the  voyage  as  before,  except 
the  several  ports  they  entered  and  the  distances  they  sailed. 

About  five  hundred  stadia  from  their  last  station  they  cast  an- 
chor at  the  mouth  of  a  certain  lake  called  Caladerbis,  the  small 
island  Margastana  being  opposite  it.  Departing  thence,  they 
sailed  through  some  shallows,  the  channel  being  so  narrow  as  not 
to  admit  of  two  ships  to  sail  abreast.  Huge  posts  are  fixed  here 
and  there  to  point  out  the  way.  These  shallows  are  formed  by  a 
deep,  stiff  clay  on  each  hand,  so  that  ships  sticking  there  are  never 
to  be  moved  by  any  human  artifice,  for  long  poles  thrust  into  it 
avail  nothing,  nor  can  the  sailors  venture  out  of  their  vessels  to 
recover  their  poles  thus  thrust  down  into  the  clayey  bottom,  be- 
cause it  yields  to  their  weight  and  sucks  them  up  to  their  arm- 
pits. Thus  they  sailed  six  hundred  stadia  with  great  difficulty, 
not  daring  to  put  into  any  port  to  refresh  themselves.  At  night 
they  kept  off  from  the  shore,  and  all  the  next  day,  till  the  even- 
ing, when  they  gained  nine  hundred  stadia,  and  now  approached 
the  mouth  of  the  river  Euphrates,  and  came  to  a  small  village  in 
the  Babylonian  territory  named  Diridotis,  to  which  place  the  Ara- 
bian merchants  bring  frankincense  and  all  other  spices,  the  pro- 
duct of  their  own  country,  to  dispose  of.  From  the  mouth  of  the 
Euphrates  up  to  Babylon  Nearchus  reckons  the  distance  to  be 
thirty-three  hundred  stadia  (412?  English  miles)."* 

The  length  of  the  coast  from  the  Indus  to  the  Euphrates,  by  the 
measurements  given  by  Nearchus,  is  twenty-two  thousand  seven 
hundred  stadia,  or  two  thousand  eight  hundred  and  thirty-seven 

*  The  care  with  which  the  channel  is  marked  out  with  balizes  for  the  gui- 
dance of  vessels,  the  various  ports  to  which  the  pilots  conducted  the  fleet,  the 
"  many  ships  "  they  saw  at  Apostani,  and  the  Arabian  merchants  at  Diridotis 
with  their  frankincense  and  spices  from  Arabia  Felix,  all  indicate  extensive 
commerce  and  navigation,  yet  the  ruin  of  Babylon  was  already  begun. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  411 

English  miles.  Nearchus  stopped  at  several  places  and  remained 
a  considerable  time  at  some  of  them.  The  utmost  time  employed 
at  sea  to  make  this  voyage  did  not  exceed  sixty-one  days,  and  the 
whole  voyage  could  be  reduced  to  about  four  months. 

The  voyage  of  Nearchus  was  justly  regarded  as  an  enterprise  as 
perilous  as  it  was  important.  Alexander  himself  speaks  of  it  as 
one  of  the  most  extraordinary  events  that  had  distinguished  his 
reign.  The  Greeks  knew  but  little  of  the  art  of  navigation.  The 
Phoenicians  possessed  nearly  the  whole  of  it  in  antiquity,  and 
they  certainly  would  have  pushed  very  far  their  discoveries  had 
they  known  the  compass. 

"At  Diridotis  Nearchus  received  a  messenger,  who  brought  him 
an  account  of  Alexander's  march  to  Susa,  and  therefore,  returning 
thiough  the  lake  to  the  mouth  of  the  river  Pasitigris,*  he  sailed 
up  that  river,  through  a  rich  and  populous  country,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  stadia,  and  there  tarried,  expecting  those  whom  he  had 
sent  to  inquire  where  the  king  was  encamped.  When  news  of 
Alexander's  approach  arrived,  they  again  sailed  up  the  stream  to 
a  bridge  newly  built,  over  which  the  king  was  to  pass  his  force  on 
their  march  to  Susa.  There  the  two  armies  joined. 

At  Susa  Alexander  committed  the  best  part  of  his  forces  to 
Hephestron,  while  he,  with  the  rest,  going  on  board  the  fleet, 
which  lay  ready  at  Susa,  sailed  down  the  river  Euleus  (same  as 
Pasitigris)  to  the  sea,  and  when  he  was  not  far  from  the  mouth 
thereof,  leaving  there  those  ships  which  were  shattered  and  out 
of  order,  he,  with  the  best  of  them,  sailed  out  into  the  ocean,  and 
then  entered  the  mouth  of  the  Tigris  (the  rest  of  the  fleet  passing 
through  a  canal  drawn  from  thence  to  the  Euphrates),  and  sailed 
up  the  Tigris  to  his  camp,  where  Hephestron,  with  the  forces  under 
his  command,  waited  his  arrival.f 

It  was  scarcely  possible  for  Alexander,  on  his  return  to  Baby- 
lon, to  remain  idle.  The  care  of  his  vast  empire  was  scarcely  an 
occupation  for  him.  A  crowd  of  projects  then  presented  them- 
selves to  his  mind,  and  he  wished  to  execute  them  all.  The  means 
did  not  embarrass  him ;  he  had  need  but  to  live.  We  cannot 
doubt  of  these  projects,  since  they  are  consigned  to  his  own 
memoirs. 

First  it  concerned  the  construction  in  Phoenicia,  Syria,  Cilicia, 

*  The  Pasitigris  and  the  Euleus  are  names  of  the  same  river.  The  city  Susa 
is  called  Shushan  by  Daniel. — Dan.,  chap,  viii.,  verse  2 — and  the  river  Ulai  is 
there  mentioned,  which,  probably,  is  the  same  as  the  Euleus.  Curtius  calls  it 
Choaspes. — [Abridged  from  note  to  Arrian.] 

t  Arrian's  "  Indian  History." 


412  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES        [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

and  the  Island  of  Cyprus,  of  one  thousand  long  ships,  stronger 
than  the  triremes,  destined  to  carry  the  war  among  the  Carthagin- 
ians and  other  peoples  bordering  on  Lybia  and  Iberia  and  on  the 
coasts  of  Sicily.  For  the  use  of  this  fleet  ports  were  to  be  dug  and 
arsenals  constructed  in  the  places  most  available  on  the  route  as 
far  as  the  Columns  of  Hercules.  It  was  then  the  question  of  found- 
ing colonies  in  Asia,  the  means  of  securing  and  increasing  these 
relations,  either  between  themselves  or  with  Europe.*  Most  of  the 
historians  of  this  prince  are  pleased  to  comment  upon  his  projects, 
or  to  make  different  changes  in  them.  Some  attributed  to  him  the 
design  of  coasting  Arabia  and  make  the  tour  of  all  Africa  to  arrive 
at  Gades,  and  to  fall  upon  Italy  and  Sicily .f  Arrian  asserts  that 
he  can  say  nothing  certain,  nor  form  any  conjecture  upon  such 
projects,  but  he  believed  that  nothing  little  entered  the  mind  of 
Alexander,  and  that  he  could  never  remain  quiet  so  long  as  he 
should  aspire  to  the  possession  of  any  country. 

The  discovery  of  the  coasts  of  the  Caspian  Sea  was  one  of  the 
designs  which  he  had  most  at  heart.  He  ordered  Heraclide  to 
cut  wood  in  the  forests  of  Hercania,  to  build  long  ships,  some  with 
decks,  others  without  them,  destined  for  this  first  discovery.  The 
preparations  for  the  second  were  made  at  Thapsacus.  They  were 
to  transport  all  the  wood  cut  on  Mount  Lebanon — the  king  of 
Cyprus  had  orders  to  furnish  iron,  rails,  and  cordage — to  Thapsa- 
cus, on  the  river  Euphrates,  and  thence,  the  material  put  together, 
they  were  to  descend  the  river,  at  the  time  of  the  floods,  to  Baby- 
lon. According  to  Aristobulus,  it  was  in  this  last  town  that  the 

*  Several  other  great  projects  are  mentioned,  but  they  do  not  concern  the 
present  subject,  scare  omitted.  They  will  be  found  in  a  book  entitled  "Ex- 
amen  Critique  des  Anciens  Historiens  de  Alexandre  le  Grande." 

t  The  preparations  of  Alexander  appear  to  me  to  have  been  made  to  sail 
from  the  Euphrates  around  Arabia  to  Egypt,  then,  with  the  one  thousand  ships 
ordered  to  be  constructed  in  "  Phoenicia,  Syria,  Cilicia,  and  the  Island  of  Cy- 
prus," and  his  own  fleet  transported  to  the  Nile  (for  he  had  transported  his 
vessels  in  India  from  the  Indus  to  the  Hydaspes  by  taking  them  to  pieces  at 
the  Indus),  assemble  all  of  them  at  Alexandria,  proceed  to  and  surprise  Car- 
thage, unprepared  for  such  a  combination.  Such  surprises  and  rapid  move- 
ments are  characteristic  of  Alexander.  The  circumnavigation  of  Arabia  and 
Africa  to  reach  Carthage  scarcely  deserves  notice,  except  to  show  the  ignorance  of 
some  ancient  authors  in  regard  to  Africa  and  the  situation  of  Carthage.  I  might 
add  that  the  canal  of  Nechos  had  been  nearly  completed,  so  Alexander  would 
not  have  been  under  the  necessity  of  transporting  his  fleet  all  the  way  from  the 
Ked  Sea  to  the  Nile,  besides,  he  could  have  finished  the  canal  with  the  immense 
forces  at  his  command.  It  had  been  begun  and  prosecuted  for  a  number  of  years 
by  Nechos,  and  Darius  had  advanced  the  enterprise,  so  it  is  probable  that  it  had 
progressed  nearly  to  its  terminus  when  finished  by  Philadelphus. 


CHAP.  XXXIX.]  OF    AMERICA.  413 

fleet  of  Nearchus  repaired,  where  were  found  two  pentiremes,  three 
quadriremes,  twelve  triremes,  and  thirty  vessels  of  thirty  oars.* 
They  had  been  transported  in  pieces,  on  the  backs  of  camels,  from 
Phoenicia  to  Thapsicus,  whence,  after  having  been  put  together, 
they  sailed  to  Babylon.  This  little  fleet,  by  favor  of  the  floods, 
had  been  able  to  arrive  at  its  destination,  but  not  without  great 
difficulty  and  much  damage.  It  is  probable  that  this  induced 
Alexander  to  have  others  built  of  cypress,  of  which  there  was  a 
considerable  quantity  in  Assyria. 

Other  naval  stores  which  these  ports  afforded  not  were  supplied 
by  the  purple-fishers  and  other  seafaring  men  belonging  to  Phoe- 
nicia and  the  coasts  thereabouts.  He  then  dug  a  deep  and  capa- 
cious basin  for  a  haven  at  Babylon,  capable  of  containing  a  thou- 
sand long  galleys,  and  built  houses  for  all  manner  of  naval  stores 
adjoining  thereto.  He  also  dispatched  Miccalus  of  Clazomene, 
with  five  hundred  talents,  into  Phceniciaand  Syria,  to  hire  or  pro- 
cure as  many  sailors  as  he  could,  because  he  designed  to  fix  colo- 
nies all  along  the  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the  neighboring 
islands,  for  he  was  of  opinion  that  that  coast  might,  in  time,  be- 
come as  rich  and  populous  as  the  Phoenician  coast.  He  made 
these  extraordinary  preparations  for  fitting  out  a  fleet  on  a  pre- 
tence of  making  war  against  the  Arabians.  The  extent  of  their 
country,  according  to  his  information,  along  the  sea-coast,  was  not 
less  than  India,  and  that  many  islands  lay  not  far  off.  Two  islands 
in  particular,  reported  to  lie  in  the  sea  over  against  the  mouths  of 
the  Euphrates,  one  whereof  was  not  above  one  hundred  and 
twenty  furlongs  distant  from  the  mouth  of  that  river  and  the  sea- 
shore. The  other  island  is  about  a  day  and  night's  sail  distant 
from  the  mouths  of  the  Euphrates,  and  named  Tylus ;  it  is  very 
large,  and  not  mountainous  nor  woody,  but  produces  plenty  of 
several  sorts  of  fruits  pleasant  and  agreeable  to  the  taste.  These 
accounts  were  delivered  to  Alexander  by  Archias,  who  was  dis- 
patched in  a  ship  with  thirty  oars  on  purpose  to  discover  the  navi- 
gation of  those  seas ;  and  when  he  had  arrived  at  the  island  of 
Tylus  durst  proceed  no  further.  However,  Androsthenes,  being 
sent  afterwards  with  another  ship  of  the  same  sort,  discovered  a 
great  part  of  the  Arabian  coast.  But  Hieron  of  Soli  far  exceeded 
all  who  went  before  him  upon  the  discovery  of  that  shore,  for  he 
with  a  galley  of  thirty  oars  was  commanded  to  sail  round  the 
whole  Arabian  Chersonese  until  he  arrived  upon  the  gulf  border- 
ing upon  Egypt,  and  the  city  of  Heroes.  But  neither  durst  he 

*  Other  accounts  mention  the  same,  except,  instead  of  pentiremes,  they  put 
quinquiremes,  which  most  prohably  they  were. 


414  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES          [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

venture  so  far  as  he  ought,  though  he  sailed  almost  round  the 
country  of  Arabia.*  In  the  meantime,  while  they  were  busied  in 
preparing  triremes  and  digging  the  basin  at  Babylon,  Alexander 
sailed  down  the  Euphrates  to  the  canal  called  Pallacopas,  which 
is  distant  from  Babylon  about  eight  hundred  furlongs  (Pallacopas 
is  not  a  river,  but  a  canal  drawn  from  the  Euphrates),  and  by  that 
canal  into  the  Arabian  territories,  where,  finding  a  situation  suit- 
able to  his  purpose,  he  built  a  city  which  he  environed  with  a  wall 
and  therein  planted  a  colony  of  Greek  mercenaries.  When  Alex- 
ander returned  to  Babylon  he  took  much  pleasure  in  seeing  his 
fleet  exercise  their  oars,  and  there  was  a  great  emulation  between 
the  trireme  and  the  quadrireme  galleys  in  the  river ;  but  in  the 
midst  of  these  preparations  Alexander  died  May  22d,  323  B.  c.,  in 
the  32d  year  of  his  age,  having  reigned  nigh  seven  years  over  Asia, 
and  almost  thirteen  over  his  hereditary  dominions. 

The  death  of  Alexander  was  followed  by  the  civil  wars  between 
his  generals,  which  lasted  to  the  great  battle  of  Ipsus,  301  B.  c., 
and  left  Ptolemy  Soter  in  possession  of  Egypt,  who  was  succeeded 
by  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  who  during  his  whole  reign  was  em- 
ployed in  exciting  industry  and  in  encouraging  the  liberal  arts 
and  useful  knowledge  among  his  subjects.  He  gave  every  possi- 
ble encouragement  to  commerce,  and  by  keeping  two  powerful 
fleets,  one  in  the  Mediterranean  and  the  other  in  the  Red  Sea,  he 
made  Egypt  the  mart  of  the  world.  With  justice  he  has  been 
called  the  richest  of  all  the  princes  and  monarchs  of  his  age,  since 
at  his  death  he  left  in  the  treasury  a  sum  equivalent  to  two  hun- 
dred million  sterling.  He  finished  the  great  canal  connecting  the 
Nile  with  the  Arabic  Gulf,  and  built  at  its  terminus  on  the  Gulf 
the  city  of  Arsinoe,  which  for  a  long  period  was  the  very  life  of 
navigation  and  commerce  on  the  Sinus  Arabicus,  forming  the 
connecting  link  between  the  traffic  of  Egypt  and  that  of  the  East. 
In  the  process  of  time,  however,  the  dangerous  navigation  of  the 
upper  part  of  the  Gulf  induced  the  construction  of  a  harbor  lower 
down,  where  was  built  the  city  of  Berenice,  from  which  a  road 
two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  miles  in  length  was  made  across  the 
intervening  desert  to  Coptos,  on  the  Nile.  From  this  harbor  the 
vessels  of  Egypt  took  their  departure  for  Arabia  Felix  and  India. 

*  Yet  Scylax  had  made  the  voyage  from  the  mouth  of  the  Indus  to  the 
head  of  the  Red  Sea,  of  which,  perhaps,  Nearchus  was  ignorant.  In  antiquity 
so  seldom  and  so  limited  was  the  intercourse  of  literary  men  with  foreign  na- 
tions, that  probably  some  important  events  in  one  nation  were  unknown  in 
another,  and  thus  have  erroneous  impressions  been  left  by  those  who  were  not 
better  informed. 


CHAP:  xxxix.]  OF  AMERICA.  415 

It  was  also  through  the  medium  of  Berenice  and  the  caravan  route 
to  Coptos  that  the  principal  trade  of  the  Romans  with  India 
was  conducted.  By  this  line  of  communication  it  is  said  that  a 
sum  not  less  than  what  would  be  now  four  hundred  thousand 
pounds  was  remitted  by  the  Roman  traders  to  their  correspondents 
in  the  East  in  the  payment  of  merchandise  which  ultimately  sold 
for  a  hundred  times  as  much.  With  such  a  stimulus  to  commerce 
navigation  must  have  been  carried  to  the  highest  degree  of  activity 
at  that  period.  After  the  foundation  of  Alexandria  the  Indian 
trade  was  almost  entirely  carried  on  by  the  merchants  of  that  city. 
Pliny  has  given  an  interesting  account  of  the  trade  between  India 
and  Alexandria  as  it  existed  in  his  own  time.  We  learn  from  him 
that  the  ships  of  the  Alexandrian  merchants  sailed  from  Berenice 
and  arrived  in  about  thirty  days  at  Ocelis  or  Carrie,  in  Arabia. 
Thence  they  sailed  by  the  southwest  monsoon  in  forty  days  to 
Muziris  (Mangalore),  the  first  emporium  of  India,  which  was  not 
much  frequented  on  account  of  the  pirates  in  the  neighborhood. 
The  port  at  which  the  vessels  usually  stayed  was  that  of  Barace 
(at  the  mouth,  probably,  of  the  Nelisuram  river).  After  remain- 
ing in  India  till  the  beginning  of  December  or  January,  they 
sailed  back  to  the  Red  Sea,  met  with  the  south  or  southwest  wind, 
and  thus  arrived  at  Berenice  in  less  than  twelve  months  from  the 
time  they  set  out. 

The  same  author  informs  us  that  the  Indian  articles  were  car- 
ried from  Berenice  to  Coptos,  a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  Roman  miles,  on  camels,  and  that  the  different  halting- 
places  were  determined  by  the  wells.  From  Captos,  which  was 
united  to  the  Nile  by  a  canal,  the  goods  were  conveyed  down  the 
river  to  Alexandria.  We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  Indian  trade  under  the  emperors  by  the  account  of  Pliny, 
who  informs  us  that  the  Roman  world  was  drained  every  year  of 
at  least  fifty  millions  of  sesterces  (upwards  of  one  million  nine 
hundred  thousand  dollars)  for  the  purchase  of  Indian  commodi- 
ties. The  profit  upon  this  trade  must  have  been  immense,  since 
Pliny  states  that  the  Indian  articles  were  sold  at  Rome  at  one  hun- 
dred per  cent,  above  their  cost  price.  The  articles  imported  by 
the  Alexandrian  merchants  were  chiefly  precious  stones,  spices, 
perfumes,  and  silk. 

Though  in  the  East  navigation  had  progressed  to  such  an  extent 
under  the  Ptolemies,  yet  three  hundred  years  before  this  period 
the  Carthaginians  appear  to  have  advanced  with  a  like  rapidity 
and  to  as  great  an  extent  in  the  West.  Descendants  of  the  most 
maritime  people  of  antiquity,  they  had  inherited  their  knowledge 


416  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES         [CHAP.  XXXIX. 

and  skill  in  nautical  affairs,  and  thus  established  their  naval  su- 
premacy in  the  West." 

*  ORMUS. 

"  Organa  appears  to  be  what  is  now  known  as  the  island  of  Or- 
muz,  orHorrautz,  which  is  traversed  by  a  high  volcanic  mountain, 
is  barren,  rocky  and  sterile.  It  is  about  five  miles  from  the  conti- 
nent of  Persia,  somewhat  more  than,  twenty-five  miles  from  that 
of  Arabia,  and  is  about  ten  miles  in  circumference.  The  city  of 
Ormus  was  founded  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
Its  commodious  situation  rendered  it  formerly  the  most  famous 
mart  of  the  East.  Ships  repaired  there  from  all  parts  of  the  In- 
dies, from  the  coasts  of  Africa,  Egypt  and  Arabia,  and  a  regular 
trade  was  carried  on  by  caravans  across  the  country.  At  proper 
seasons  of  the  year  merchants  resorted  to  it  from  all  countries, 
and  particularly  the  Venetians,  who  carried  a  great  trade  in  jewels, 
transported  hence  to  Bassora,  and  by  caravans  to  Aleppo,  or  to 
Suez  by  sea,  then  overland  and  by  the  Nile  to  Alexandria,  where 
they  were  delivered  to  the  merchants  to  whom  they  were  consigned. 
Caravans  passed  twice  a  year,  viz.,  in  April  and  September,  from 
Aleppo  to  Bassora,  and  thence  were  transported  by  sea  to  the  isle 
of  Ormus.  These  caravans  consisted  of  five  or  six  thousand  per- 
sons, and  brought  with  them  articles  of  immense  value.  At  the 
same  time  private  ships  navigated  the  sea  from  Malacca,  and  the 
caravans  that  traversed  Persia  brought  vast  quantities  of  rich  and 
valuable  commodities.  The  city  and  castle  of  Ormus  were  in 
ancient  times  deemed  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  East,  the  mag- 
nificence of  which  was  expressed  after  the  Oriental  manner  in 
this  phrase :  '  That  the  world  being  round  as  a  ring,  Ormus  might 
be  considered  as  its  jewel.'  By  the  wealth  which  flowed  into  it 
and  from  it,  it  became  the  richest  and  most  busy,  not  to  add  the 
most  delightful  city  in  the  world.  Ormus  had  two  good  ports, 
which  served  as  the  entrepot  to  the  commerce  of  Persia  with  the 
Indies.  It  was  the  most  brilliant  and  most  agreeable  city  of  the 
East.  There  were  to  be  seen  men  from  nearly  all  parts  of  the 
world  making  exchanges  of  their  goods,  and  carrying  on  their 
business  with  a  politeness  and  respect  little  known  in  other  places 
of  commerce.  This  tone  was  given  by  the  merchants  who  com- 
municated to  strangers  a  part  of  their  affability.  Their  manners, 
the  good  order  which  was  maintained  in  their  city,  the  conveni- 
ences, the  pleasures  of  every  kind  that  were  collected  there,  all 
concurred  in  attracting  merchants  there.  The  pavements  of  the 
streets  were  covered  in  some  places  with  carpets ;  the  awnings 
which  projected  from  the  tops  of  the  houses  made  the  heat  of  the 


CHAP.   XL.]  OF    AMERICA.  417 

sun  supportable.  They  had  des  cabinets  des  Indes  adorned  with 
golden  or  porcelain  vases,  in  which  were  shrubs  or  fragrant  herbs. 
There  were  in  the  public  squares  camels  loaded  with  water.  They 
were  lavish  of  Persian  wines,  as  well  as  of  perfumes  and  the  most 
exquisite  nutriments.  They  heard  the  best  music  of  the  East. 
Ormus  was  filled  with  beautiful  young  women  of  the  different 
countries  of  Asia.  There  was  enjoyed  all  the  delights  that  the 
resort  of  wealth  could  attract — an  immense  commerce,  an  ingeni- 
ous luxury,  a  polished  people,  and  gay  women. 

Albuquerque  attempted  in  vain,  in  1508,  to  take  the  island.  It 
was  defended  by  thirty  thousand  men,  and  had  in  its  harbor  four 
hundred  vessels,  sixty  of  which  were  brigs,  and  having  in  all 
twenty-five  hundred  men  on  board.  He  returned,  however,  in 
1514  with  an  overwhelming  force,  and  having  obtained  possession 
of  the  island,  he  erected  a  strong  fort.  It  remained  in  their  pos- 
session one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  and  advanced  so  rapidly 
in  wealth  and  splendor  that  it  was  deemed  the  richest  spot  in  the 
world.  In  1622  it  surrendered  to  the  combined  arms  of  England 
and  Persia,  and  thus  having  fallen  into  the  power  of  the  Persians 
went  to  decay."* 


CHAPTER   XL. 

Alexander's  Plans — The  Voyage  of  Hanno — Bougainville's  Comments  on  the 
Voyage  of  Hanno — Carthaginian  Colonies  in  Africa — Carthaginian  Traffic 
— Gold  Mines  of  the  Senegal  and  Rio-d'-Ouro— The  Voyages  and  Ves- 
sels of  Columbus — The  Nina — The  Storm— The  Hurricane  -  The  Duration 
of  the  Voyages  of  Columbus  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean — Humboldt's  Account 
of  the  Route  from  the  Canaries  to  Cumana — The  Voyage  of  Bligh  in  a 
Launch. 

FROM  the  statements  of  those  who  were  with  Alexander,  and 
from  the  grand  naval  preparations  at  Babylon  and  in  the  islands 
of  the  Mediterranean  tributary  to  Alexandria,  it  is  apparent  that 
at  the  time  of  his  death  he  had  formed  a  gigantic  scheme  for  con- 
quering the  Carthaginians,  the  most  powerful  and  active  maritime 
nation  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  coasts  of  this  sea  from  the 
Hellespont  to  the  river  Nile  were  his,  and  he  determined  to  pos- 
sess them  westward  of  that  river  to  the  ocean,  to  do  which  this 
great  naval  power  had  to  be  conquered. 

Carthage  at  this    period    was  prosperous    and    populous,  and 

*  "Rees'  "  and  "  Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia." 
27 


418  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

so  greatly  had  multiplied  its  inhabitants  more  than  three  hun- 
dred years  before  the  time  of  Alexander  that  it  was  found  neces- 
sary to  send  some  of  them  abroad  to  found  colonies  on  the  west- 
ern coast  of  Africa.*  For  this  purpose  a  fleet  of  sixty  ships  of 
fifty  oars  was  fitted  out  at  Carthage,  on  board  of  which  embarked 
thirty  thousand  emigrants,  and  Hanno  put  in  command  of  it.  Of 
this  voyage  Hanno  wrote  an  .account  which,  abridged,  has  been 
transmitted  to  modern  times.  Montesque  puts  the  periplus  of 
Hanno  among  the  most  precious  monuments  of  antiquity,  and 
Bougainville  adopts  the  same  sentiment,  and  gives,  in  the  collec- 
tion of  the  "Academy  of  Inscriptions  "  at  Paris,  a  curious  memoir 
upon  this  voyage,  besides  a  translation  of  the  periplus  itself,  with 
the  necessary  explanations,  the  substance  of  which  is  the  follow- 
ing: 

But  before  giving  the  critical  account  of  Hanno's  voyage  by  Bou- 
gainville, a  brief  sketch  of  this  important  voyage  will  be  given  from 
Anthon's  "  Classical  Dictionary,"  where  a  particular  account  of  it 
will  be  found  under  the  article  "  Hanno."  By  giving  here  this 
sketch  the  reader  will,  by  comparing  the  two,  see  in  one  the  omis- 
sions in  the  other,  and  form  a  better  idea  of  the  settlements  made, 
and  the  country  visited  by  Hanno :  "  When  we  had  passed  the 
Pillars  on  our  voyage,  and  sailed  beyond  them  for  two  days,  we 
founded  the  first  city,  which  was  Thymiaterium.  Below  it  lay  an 
extensive  plain.  Proceeding  thence  towards  the  west  we  came  to 
Solocis,  a  promontory  of  Libya,  a  place.thickly  covered  with  trees, 
where  we  erected  a  temple  to  Neptune.  Then  proceeding  half  a 
day,  we  came  to  the  lake  with  reeds.  Having  passed  the  lake  about 
a  day's  sail  we  founded  cities  near  the  sea,  called  Cariconticos  and 
Gytte,  and  Acra  and  Melitta,  and  Arambys.  Then  we  came  to 
the  river  Lixus.  Beyond  the  Lixitse  dwelt  the  inhospitable  Ethi- 
opians who  pasture  a  wild  country  intersected  by  large  moun- 
tains, whence  they  say  the  river  Lixus  flows.  Having  procured 
interpreters  of  them  (the  Lixans),  we  coasted  along  a  desert  coun- 
try towards  the  south  two  days.  Thence  proceeding  towards  the 
east  the  course  of  a  day,  we  found  in  a  recess  of  a  certain  bay  a 
small  island.  There  we  founded  Cerne.  We  judged,  from  our 
voyage,  that  this  place  lay  in  a  direct  line  with  Carthage,  for  the 
length  of  our  voyage  from  Carthage  to  the  Pillars  was  equal  to 
that  from  the  Pillars  to  Cerne.f  Then  they  next  came  to  the  Lake 

*  This  expedition  is  generally  supposed  to  have  taken  place  about  570  B.  c. 
Gail,  however,  places  it  between  633  and  530  B.  c. 

f  The  Carthaginians  appear  to  have  imagined  they  sailed  eastward  from  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules. 


CHAP.  XL.]  OF    AMERICA.  419 

with  three  islands  larger  than  Cerne,  which  lake  they  reached  by 
sailing  up  a  large  river.  A  day's  sail  above  these  islands  they  came 
to  the  extremity  of  the  lake,  which  was  overhung  by  large  moun- 
tains, and  where  they  were  stoned  by  the  inhabitants  and  thus 
prevented  from  landing.  Thence  they  came  to  another  river  large 
and  broad,  and  full  of  crocodiles  and  hippopotami,  whence  they 
returned  to  Cerne.  Thence*  we  sailed  towards  the  south  twelve 
days,  coasting  the  shore,  inhabited  by  Ethiopians,  who  fled  from 
us.  Towards  the  last  days  we  approached  some  large  mountains 
covered  with  trees,  the  wood  of  which  was  sweet-scented  and  va- 
riegated. Having  wailed  by  these  mountains  two  days  we  came  to 
an  immense  opening  of  the  sea,  on  each  side  of  which,  towards  the 
continent,  was  a  plain,  from  which  we  saw  by  night  fire  arising  by 
intervals  in  all  directions.  Having  taken  in  water  here,  we  sailed 
forward  five  days  near  the  land  until  we  came  to  a  large  bay 
called  the  Western  Horn.  In  this  bay  was  a  large  island,  and  in 
the  island  a  salt-water  lake,  and  in  this  lake  another  island,  where, 
when  we  had  landed,  we  could  discover  nothing  in  the  daytime 
except  trees,  but  in  the  night  we  saw  many  fires  burning,  and 
heard  the  sound  of  pipes,  cymbals,  drums,  and  confused  shouts. 
We  were  then  afraid,  and  our  diviners  advised  us  to  abandon  the 
island.  Sailing  quickly  thence,  we  passed  a  country  burning  with 
fire  and  perfumes,  and  streams  of  fire  supplied  from  it  fell  into 
the  sea.  The  country  was  impassable  on  account  of  the  heat.  We 
sailed  thence,  and  passing  on  for  four  days  discovered  at  night  a 
country  full  of  fire.  In  the  middle  was  a  lofty  fire,  larger  than 
the  rest,  which  seemed  to  touch  the  stars.  When  day  came  we 
discovered  it  to  be  a  large  hill  called  the  Chariot  of  the  Gods.f  .On 
the  third  day  after  our  departure  thence,  having  sailed  by  these 

*  As  Hanno  returned  to  Cerne,  and  then  renewed,  or  rather  continued,  his 
voyage,  he  probably  went  again  over  the  same  route  to  where  he  had  ended  his 
"particular"  voyage,  and  ''  Thence"  began  anew  as  described  after  the  word 
"  Thence." 

f  Meyers,  in  his  "  Remains  of  Lost  Empires,"  thus  describes  a  scene  he  viewed 
in  crossing  the  range  of  mountains  that  environ  Cashmere  :  "  From  the  top  of 
the  range  we  had  a  weird  view.  The  forests  which  crowned  one  of  the  loftiest 
peaks  ahead  were  all  ablaze,  and  the  whole  summit  glowed  like  a  volcano.  The 
fire  running  down  the  valleys  looked  like  streams  of  burning  lava,  leaping  in 
fiery  cascades  down  the  abrupt  flanks  of  the  mountains  ;  and  while  the  fires 
that  formed  the  blazing  crown  of  the  peak  seemed  mounted  half  way  up  the 
heaven,  there  were  hidden  fires  burning  in  profound  valleys  far  beneath  us, 
that  only  revealed  themselves  by  the  lurid  reflection  they  shot  up  the  steep 
slopes  against  the  sky,  which  seemed  through  the  glow  of  the  night  as  if  thrown 
up  from  the  open  doors  of  Pluto's  dominions."  • 


420  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

streams  of  fire,  we  arrived  at  a  bay  called  the  Southern  Horn,  at 
the  head  of  which  lay  an  island  like  the  former,  having  a  lake,  and 
in  the  lake  another  island  full  of  gorillas,"  etc. 

The  following  is  Bougainville's  account  and  explanation  of  the 
same  voyage.  As  he  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  navigators 
and  discoverers  of  France,  and  probably  had  visited  the  places  he 
describes,  his  opinions  merit  the  highest  consideration: 

"  Hanno  left  the  port  of  Carthage  at  the  head  of  sixty  vessels, 
which  carried  a  great  multitude  of  passengers  destined  to  people 
the  colonies  he  was  going  to  establish.  This  numerous  fleet  was 
loaded  with  provisions  and  munitions  of  every  kind,  as  well  for 
the  voyage  as  for  the  new  settlements.  Ancient  Carthaginian 
colonies  had  been  planted  from  Carthage  to  the  Strait,  so  that  the 
operations  were  not  to  begin  but  beyond  this  limit. 

Hanno  having  passed  the  Strait  did  not  stop  until,  after  two  days 
of  navigation,  he  arrived  near  the  promontory  of  Hermeum, 
near  Cape  Cautin,  and  it  was  to  the  south  of  this  cape  that  he  set- 
tled the  first  colony.  The  fleet  continued  its  route  as  far  as  a  cape 
covered  with  trees,  which  Hanno  named  Solse,  and  which  the 
periplus  of  Scylax  puts  at  three  days'  journey  farther  than  the 
preceding.  It  was  probably  the  Cape  Bajador,  so  named  by  the 
Portuguese  because  of  the  very  dangerous  currents  which  form  at 
this  place  waves  that  break  here  with  great  violence. 

The  Carthaginians  doubled  the  cape;  a  half  a  day's  journey 
brought  them  in  view  of  a  great  lake,  adjoining  the  sea,  filled  with 
reeds,  and  its  borders  thronged  with  elephants  and  other  wild  ani- 
mals. Three  days  and  a  half  of  navigation  separated  this  lake 
from  a  river  named  Lixus  by  the  Carthaginian  admiral.  He  an- 
chored at  the  mouth  of  this  river,  and  remained  there  for  some 
time  to  carry  on  commerce  with  the  Lixite  nomads  spread  along 
the  borders  of  the  Lyceus.  This  river  can  be  but  the  Rio-d'-Ouro, 
a  kind  of  arm  of  the  sea,  or  of  a  pond  of  salt  water,  which  Hanno 
would  have  taken  for  a  great  river  at  its  mouth. 

Afterwards  the  fleet  anchored  near  an  island  which  Hanno  calls 
Cerne,  and  he  left  on  this  island  some  inhabitants  to  form  there  a 
colony.  Cerne  is  no  other  than  our  island  of  Arguin,  called  Ghir 
by  the  Moors.  It  is  fifty  miles  from  Cape  Blanco,  in  a  great  bay 
formed  by  this  cape,  and  a  sand-bank  of  more  than  fifty  miles  in 
extent  from  north  to  south,  and  a  little  less  than  a  league  wide 
from  east  to  west ;  its  distance  from  the  continent  of  Africa  is 
scarcely  a  league. 

Hanno  having  again  put  to  sea,  proceeded  as  far  as  the  borders 
of  a-  great  river,  which  he  named  Chres,  at  the  extremity  of  which 


CHAP.  XL.]  .OF    AMERICA.  421 

he  saw  high  mountains  inhabited  by  savages  clothed  with  the  skins 
of  wild  beasts.  These  savages  opposed  the  landing  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians, and  repulsed  them  by  throwing  stones  at  them.  Accord- 
ing to  all  appearances  this  river  Chres  is  the  river  St.  John,  which 
flows  to  the  south  of  Arguin,  at  the  southern  extremity  of  a  great 
shelf.  It  receives  the  waters  of  several  considerable  lakes,  and 
forms  some  islands  in  its  channel,  besides  those  which  are  seen 
to  the  north  of  its  mouth.  Its  environs  are  inhabited  by  nomads 
of  the  same  kind  as  those  of  the  Lixus,  and  they  are  probably  the 
savages  which  Hanno  saw. 

Having  continued  his  navigation  along  the  coast  towards  the 
south,  it  conducted  him  to  another  river,  very  large  and  very  deep, 
filled  with  crocodiles  and  hippopotami.  The  greatness  of  this  river 
and  the  ferocious  animals  that  it  nourished  certainly  designates 
the  Senegal.  He  limited  his  particular  voyage  to  this  great  river, 
and,  retracing  his  route,  he  went  to  seek  the  rest  of  his  fleet  in  the 
road  of  Cerne. 

After  twelve  days  of  navigation  along  a  level  coast,  the  Cartha- 
ginians discovered  an  elevated  country  and  mountains  covered 
with  forests.  These  wooded  mountains  of  Hanno  should  be  those 
of  Serra  Leona,  which  begin  beyond  the  Rio  Grande  and  continue 
to  Cape  St.  Anne. 

Hanno  gives  twenty-six  days,  clearly  expressed  in  his  peri- 
plus,  to  go  from  the  Island  of  Cerne  to  the  gulf  which  he  names 
the  Southern  Horn ;  it  is  the  gulf  of  the  coast  of  Guinea,  which 
extends  as  far  as  Benin,  and  which,  beginning  to  the  west  of  Cape 
Trois-pointes,  ends  to  the  east  of  Cape  Formosa. 

Hanno  discovered  in  this  gulf  a  particular  island  filled  with 
savages,  among  whom  he  believed  he  saw  more  women  than  men. 
They  had  bodies  all  hairy,  and  the  interpreters  of  Hanno  called 
them  Gorillas.*  The  Carthaginians  pursued  these  savages,  who 
escaped  from  them  by  their  speed  in  running.  They  seized  three 
of  the  women,  but  they  could  not  take  them  alive,  so  great  was 
their  ferocity ;  they  were  obliged  to  kill  them,  and  their  skins 
were  carried  to  Carthage,  where,  until  the  destruction  of  that  city, 
they  were  preserved  in  the  Temple  of  Juno.  The  island  of  the 
Gorillas  is  some  one  of  those  which  are  found  in  great  numbers  in 
this  lake.  The  neighboring  country  is  filled  with  animals  like 
those  which  Hanno  took  for  wild  men. 

The  Cape  Trois-pointes  was  the  limit  of  the  discoveries  of  Hanno. 
The  want  of  provisions  obliged  him  to  conduct  back  his  fleet  to 

*  This  is  probably  the  first  instance  in  which  this  word  and  these  Simla  are 
mentioned  in  history. 


422  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

Carthage.  He  re-entered  there  full  of  glory,  after  having  penetrated 
as  far  as1  the  fifth  degree  of  latitude,  taken  possession  of  a  coast  of 
nearly  six  hundred  leagues,  by  the  settlement  of  several  colonies, 
from  the  strait  to  Cerne,  and  founded  on  this  island  a  safe  and 
commodious  depot  for  the  commerce  of  his  countrymen,  which 
increased  considerably  after  this  expedition. 

There  are  no  proofs  that  the  Carthaginians  preserved  afterwards 
all  the  knowledge  that  they  owed  to  the  voyage  of  Hanno.  It  is 
even  presumed  that  their  merchants  went  not,  at  first,  beyond  the 
Senegal,  and  that  gradually  they  left  many  on  this  side  of  that 
river. 

At  the  time  of  Silax*  the  Island  of  Cerne  had  become  the  limit 
of  navigation  for  large  ships.  The  colony  of  Hanno  maintained 
itself  there,  and  Cerne  was  always  the  entrepot  for  the  commerce 
of  the  Carthaginians  to  the  south  of  Africa.  Their  large  vessels 
remained  in  the  road  of  the  island,  the  farther  coast  not  being 
easily  navigated  because  of  the  rocks  and  shoals,  covered  with 
grass,  which  are  frequently  met  with  there.  They  embarked  at 
Cerne  in  light  boats,  on  which  they  went  to  trade  along  the  coasts, 
and  even  in  the  rivers,  which  they  ascended  quite  far. 

Silax  mentions  a  town  of  Ethiopians,  or  Negroes,  where  they 
went  to  trade,  and  gives  us  a  detail  of  the  merchandises  of  both 
parties  and  their  manner  of  trading.  The  Carthaginians  carried 
there  earthen  vessels,  tiles  (tuiles),  Egyptian  perfumes,  and  some 
jewelry,  of  little  value,  for  the  women.  In  exchange,  they  received 
the  skins  of  deer,  lion,  and  panther,  and  the  hides  arid  tusks  of 
elephants.  These  hides  were  of  great  use  for  cuirasses  and  bucklers. 

Silax  is  silent  in  regard  to  the  gold-dust  which  they  also  derived 
from  those  countries.!  It  was  a  secret  of  their  commerce,  of  which 
doubtless  he  was  ignorant,  having  consulted  but  the  routes  of  the 
pilots,  where  they  had  taken  care  not  to  mention  this  important 
'article.  But  Herodotus,  instructed  by  the  indiscretion  of  some 
Carthaginians,  reveals  it  to  us  in  his  history." 

There  is  still  seen  in  the  island  of  Arguin  a  monument  of  the 
long  sojourn  of  the  Carthaginians.  It  is  two  covered  cisterns  ex- 
cavated in  the  rock  with  "  immense  labor  "  to  collect  the  waters  of 
divers  sources,  and  shelter  them  from  the  excessive  heat  of  the 

*  The  year  360  B.  c.,  according  to  Niebuhr. 

t  Scylax,  a  celebrated  geographer,  born  in  Caria,  flourished  some  time  after 
Hanno,  that  is  to  say,  about  330  years  before  Christ.  There  is  under  his  name 
a  very  interesting  periplus,  which  is,  perhaps,  a  brief  abridgment  of  his  work. 
In  it  he  speaks  of  some  Phoenician  towns  built  upon  the  coast  of  Africa,  among 
others,  of  the  town  of  Thymiaterium,  which  Hanno  built. 


CHAP.  XL.]  OP    AMERICA.  423 

climate.  These  cisterns,  marked  in  some  plans  of  the  fort  on  this 
island,  belonging  to  the  French  India  Company,  contain  sufficient 
water  to  furnish  many  large  ships.  It  is  not  a  work  of  the  Moors. 
These  people,  masters  of  the  interior  of  the  country  and  of  the 
coasts,  have  no  need  to  undertake  them  ;  besides,  they  are  not 
navigators.  So  we  are  obliged  to  attribute  them  to  the  Carthagin- 
ians, ancient  possessors  of  the  island,  after  the  discovery  of 
Hanno.* 

The  periplus  of  Hanno  appears  the  most  ancient,  and  the  only 
morsel  of  this  kind  that  we  have  in  the  original.  It  is  anterior 
to  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  Alexander,  that  is  to  say, 
the  year  336  before  Christ,  since  he  speaks  in  it  of  Tyre  as  a  flour- 
ishing town,  which  had  its  own  particular  king,  and  which  is  situ- 
ated on  an  island  separated  from  the  continent  by  a  shoal  of  three 
stadia.  It  is  seen  by  this  that  the  voyage  of  Hanno  is  more  an- 
cient than  the  year  336  B.  c.  Pliny  says  it  was  in  the  time  of  the 
potency  of  the  Carthaginians,  "  Carthagenis  potentia  florente."  But 
this  power  commenced  so  early  that  we  cannot  fix  the  date  of  it.f 

"  We  have  the  authority  of  the  Carthaginians  to  affirm  that 
beyond  the  Columns  of  Hercules  there  is  a  country  inhabited  by 
a  people  with  whom  they  have  had  commercial  intercourse.  It  is 
their  custom  on  arriving  among  them  to  unload  their  vessels  and 
deposit  their  goods  along  the  shore.  This  done,  they  again  em- 
bark and  make  a  great  smoke  from  on  board.  The  natives,  see- 
ing this,  come  down  immediately  to  the  shore,  and  placing  a 
quantity  of  gold,  by-  way  of  exchange,  for  the  merchants,  retire. 
The  Carthaginians  then  land,  and  if  they  think  the  gold  equiva- 
lent, they  take  it  and  depart;  if  not,  they  go  aboard  their  vessels. 
The  inhabitants  return  and  add  more  gold  till  the  crews  are  sat- 
isfied. The  whole  is  conducted  with  the  strictest  integrity."! 

Along  this  coast  where  the  Carthaginians  traded  is  the  country 
of  Bambouk,  south  of  the  Senegal,  where  most  of  the  gold  which 
finds  its  way  to  the  coast  is  obtained.  The  richest  gold  mine 
known  in  Africa  is  that  of  Natakoo,  a  small,  round  isolated  hill. 
The  next  richest  mine  in  this  part  of  Africa  is  that  of  Nambia, 
situated  at  the  back  of  the  western  chain  of  the  Tabaoura  Moun- 
tains. It  is  found  in  a  hill  similar  to  that  of  Natakoo.  In  the 
valley  east  of  the  river  Oro  is  the  mine  of  Kombodyria — an  iso- 
lated mount  of  argillaceous  clay,  as  in  the  former  two  cases.  Here, 
too,  the  beds  of  the  adjacent  streams  contain  gold,  which,  in  this 

*  The  Portuguese  may  have  made  these  cisterns. 

t  "Dictionaire  des  Sciences  par  Didero  &  D'Alembert." 

J  Herodotus,  born  494  B.  c.,  finished  his  history  446  B.  c. 


424  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

part  of  Western  Africa,  is  found  distributed  over  a  surface  of  twelve 
hundred  square  miles.  Large  quantities  of  gold  are  also  found 
on  the  banks  of  the  Barra,  on  the  west  coast. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  Carthaginians  had  any  difficulty  in 
doubling  Cape  Bajador,  yet  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  after 
that  event  the  Portuguese,  in  the  progress  of  their  discoveries 
along  the  western  coast  of  Africa,  were  delayed  for  fifty  years  by 
this  very  cape  which  the  Carthaginians  had  doubled  without  dif- 
ficulty, for  if  there  had  been  any  it  would  probably  have  been 
mentioned,  since  it  had  proven  such  an  impediment  and  terror 
to  the  Portuguese. 

When  Hanno  had  reached  Cape  Three  Points,  the  limit  of  his 
voyage,  he  judged  that  he  had  reached  the  line  (longitude)  in 
which  was  Carthage — a  close  calculation,  considering  the  state  of 
navigation  at  that  time,  and  very  far  superior  to  that  of  Columbus, 
who,  when  he  had  reached  Cuba,  believed  he  had  discovered 
Cipango,  or  Japan,  and  yet  he  was  not  a  third  of  the  way  to  it, 
and  more  than  eight  thousand  miles  from  it.  Cerne,  now  Arguin, 
the  colony  established  by  Hanno,  is  very  little  north  of  the  twen- 
tieth degree  of  north  latitude,  and  scarcely  more  than  three  de- 
grees north  of  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  which  are  about  three 
hundred  and  ninety  miles  from  Cape  Verde,  on  the  continent  of 
Africa,  and  nearly  in  the  same  degree  of  longitude  as  Cerne,  or 
Arguin,  viz.,  about  17°  or  18°  west  of  Greenwich. 

Besides  the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  there  are  the  Madeira  Islands, 
and  the  Canary  Islands  off  the  coast  of  Africa  one  hundred  and 
eighty  miles,  along  which  the  Carthaginians  traded  from  the  Strait 
of  Gibraltar  to  Cape  Formosa.  As  the  colonies  settled  on  the  west 
coast  of  Africa,  in  all  probability,  existed  from  their  founding, 
not  less  than  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  to  the  reduction 
of  the  Carthaginian  power  in  the  Second  Punic  war,  two  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  a  period  of  not  less  than  three  hundred  years,* 
it  is  reasonable  to  believe  that  a  people  so  maritime,  energetic,  and 
powerful,  became,  not  long  after  the  founding  of  their  colonies, 
acquainted  with  all  these  clusters  of  islands,  the  farthest  of  which 
does  not  exceed  four  hundred  miles  distance  from  the  continent, 
while  the  nearest  were  about  ninety  miles.f 

*  The  founding  of  the  Carthaginian  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Africa  is  gen- 
erally supposed  to  have  taken  place  570  B.  c.  Gail  places  it  between  633  and 
530  B.  c. 

t  It  is  surprising  the  different  distances  given  to  these  islands  by  some  en- 
cyclopaedias. There  was  considerable  difference  in  that  given  in  three  of  them, 
while  some  make  no  mention  of  their  distance  from  the  continent. 


CHAP.  XL.]  OF   AMERICA.  425 

Of  the  three  vessels  with  which  Columbus  crossed  the  widest 
part  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  discovered  the  New  World  in  1492, 
two  of  them  were  light  barks,  called  caravels,  not  superior  to  river 
and  coasting  craft  of  more  modern  days.  They  are  delineated  as 
open  and  without  deck  in  the  centre,  but  built  up  high  at  the 
prow  and  stern,  with  forecastles  and  cabins  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  crew.  Peter  Martyr,  the  learned  cotemporary  of  Co- 
lumbus, says  that  only  one  of  the  three  vessels  was  decked.  The 
smallness  of  the  vessels  was  considered  by  Columbus  as  an  ad- 
vantage in  a  voyage  of  discovery,  enabling  him  to  run  close  to 
shore  and  to  enter  shallow  rivers  and  harbors.  That  such  long 
and  perilous  expeditions  into  unknown  seas  should  be  undertaken 
by  vessels  without  decks,  and  that  they  should  live  through  the 
violent  tempests  by  which  they  were  frequently  assailed,  remain 
among  the  singular  circumstances  of  those  daring  voyages. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  the  bulk  and  construction  of  vessels 
were  accommodated  to  the  short  and  easy  voyages  along  the  coast 
which  they  were  accustomed  to  perform.  We  have  many  proofs, 
however,  that  even  anterior  to  the  fifteenth  century  there  were 
large  ships  employed  by  the  Spaniards  as  well  as  by  other  nations. 
In  an  edict  published  in  Barcelona  in  1354  by  Pedro  IV.  mention 
is  made  of  Catalonian  merchant  ships  of  two  and  three  decks  and 
from  eight  to  twelve  thousand  quintals  burden. 

In  1463  mention  is  made  of  a  Venetian  ship  of  seven  hundred 
tons  which  arrived  at  Barcelona  from  England,  loaded  with  wheat. 
These  arrivals  show  that  large  vessels  were  in  use  in  those  days. 
Indeed,  at  the  time  of  fitting  out  the  second  expedition  of  Colum- 
bus there  were  prepared  at  the  port  of  Brimeo  a  caracca  of  twelve 
hundred  and  fifty  tons  and  four  ships  of  from  one  hundred  and 
fifty  to  four  hundred  and  fifty  tons  burden. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  for  want  of  large  vessels  in  the  Spanish 
ports  that  those  of  Columbus  were  of  so  small  a  size.  He  had 
some  purposely  constructed  of  a  very  small  size  for  his  service. 
Such  was  the  caravel  which  in  his  third  voyage  he  dispatched  to 
look  out  for  an  opening  to  the  sea  at  the  upper  part  of  the  Gulf 
of  Para  when  the  water  grew  too  shallow  for  his  vessel  of  one  hun- 
dred tons  burden  and  requiring  three  fathoms  of  water.  The  most 
singular  circumstance  with  respect  to  the  ships  of  Columbus  is 
that  they  should  be  open  vessels  ;  for  it  seems  difficult  to  believe 
that  a  voyage  of  such  extent  and  peril  should  be  attempted  in 
barks  of  so  frail  a  construction.  This,  however,  is  expressly  men- 
tioned by  Peter  Martyr  in  his  "  Decades,"  written  at  the  time,  and 
mention  is  made  occasionally  in  memoirs  relative  to  the  voyage 


426  THE   INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

written  by  Columbus  and  his  son  of  certain  of  his  vessels  being 
without  decks.  He  sometimes  speaks  of  the  same  vessel  as  a  ship 
and  a  caravel.  In  the  Mediterranean,  caravel  designates  the  largest 
class  of  ships  of  war  among  the  Musselmans ;  in  Portugal  it  means 
a  small  vessel  of  from  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  one  hundred 
and  forty  tons  burden ;  but  Columbus  sometimes  applied  it  to  a 
vessel  of  forty  tons. 

That  the  word  caravel  is  intended  to  signify  a  vessel  of  a  small 
size  is  evident  from  a  naval  classification  made  by  King  Alonzo 
in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century.  In  the  first  class  he 
enumerates  Naos,  or  large  ships  which  go  only  with  sails,  some 
of  which  have  two  masts  and  others  only  one.  In  the  second 
class  smaller  vessels,  as  Caraccas,  Fustas,  Ballenares,  Pinazas,  Cara- 
belas,  etc.  In  the  third  class  vessels  with  sails  and  oars,  as  galleys, 
galeots,  tardantes,  and  saetias. 

Bossi  gives  a  copy  of  a  letter  written  by  Columbus.  With  this 
he  gives  several  wood-cuts  of  sketches  made  with  a  pen,  which 
accompanied  this  letter,  and  which  he  supposes  to  have  been 
made  by  Columbus.  In  these  are  represented  vessels  which  are 
probably  caravels.  They  have  high  bows  and  sterns,  with  castles 
on  the  latter.  They  have  short  masts,  with  large  square  sails. 
One  of  them,  besides  sails,  has  benches  of  oars,  and  is  probably 
intended  to  represent  a  galley.  They  are  all  evidently  vessels  of 
medium  size  and  light  construction.  It  appears,  therefore,  to  be 
a  fact  that  most  of  the  vessels  with  which  Columbus  made  this 
long  and  perilous  voyage  were  of  this  light  and  frail  construction, 
and  little  superior  to  the  small  craft  which  ply  on  rivers  and 
along  the  coasts  in  modern  days. 

The  Santa  Maria,  fully  decked,  carried  sixty-six  persons,  but 
none  from  Palos ;  the  Pinta,  decked  forward  and  aft,  carried,  offi- 
cers and  crew,  thirty  men,  besides  several  passengers,  all,  with 
one  exception,  from  Palos  or  from  Moguer;  the  Nina  had  a  crew 
of  only  twenty-four  men,  and  the  rest  of  the  friends  and  neigh- 
bors of  the  Pinzons,  and  was  decked  only  at  the  stern.* 

This  little  vessel,  the  Nina  [23],  has  a  history  which  merits  a 
record  here.  Lorgues  says :  "  The  smallest  of  the  three  ships, 
the  caraval  whose  name  indicates  its  smallness,  la  Nina  (the  babe), 
was  provided  only  with  a  lateen  sail,  as  the  fishing-boats  of  Mar- 
seilles." When  the  Santa  Maria  went  aground  in  the  channel  be- 
tween the  island  Tortuga  and  Hispaniola,  or  Hati,  Columbus  went 
on  board  the  Nina  and  returned  to  Spain  on  this  vessel.  "  On  the 

*  I  mention  the  decks  as  made  in  the  copy  of  the  vessels  sent  to  Chicago  in 
1894. 


w 

H 


CHAP.  XL.]  OF   AMERICA.  427 

12th  of  February,  1493,  as  they  were  flattering  themselves  with 
soon  coming  in  sight  of  land,  the  wind  came  on  to  blow  violently, 
with  a  heavy  sea.  They  still  kept  their  course  to  the  east,  but 
with  great  labor  and  peril.  On  the  following  day,  after  sunset, 
the  wind  and  swell  increased ;  there  were  three  flashes  of  light- 
ning in  the  north-northeast,  considered  by  Columbus  as  signals 
of  an  approaching  tempest.  It  soon  burst  upon  them  with  fright- 
ful violence.  Their  small  and  crazy  vessels  (Nina  and  Pinta), 
open  and  without  decks,  were  little  fitted  for  the  wild  storms  of 
the  Atlantic.  All  night  they  were  obliged  to  scud  under  bare 
poles.  As  the  morning  dawned  on  the  14th,  there  was  a  transient 
pause,  and  they  made  a  little  sail,  but  the  wind  rose  again  from 
the  south  with  redoubled  vehemence,  raging  throughout  the  day, 
and  increasing  in  fury  in  the  night,  while  the  vessel  labored  ter- 
ribly in  a  cross  sea,  the  broken  waves  of  which  threatened  each 
moment  to  overwhelm  them  or  dash  them  to  pieces.  For  three 
hours  they  lay  to  with  just  sail  enough  to  keep  them  above  the 
waves ;  but,  the  tempest  still  augmenting,  they  were  obliged  again 
to  scud  before  the  wind.  Columbus  continued  to  scud  all  night. 

As  the  day  dawned  the  sea  presented  a  frightful  waste  of  wild 
broken  waves  lashed  into  fury  by  the  gale.  He  now  made  a  little 
sail  to  keep  the  vessel  ahead  of  the  sea,  lest  its  Kuge  waves  should 
break  over  it.  As  the  sun  rose  the  wind  and  waves  rose  with  it, 
and  throughout  a  dreary  day  the  hapless  bark  was  driven  along 
by  the  fury  of  the  tempest.  After  heavy  showers,  there  appeared 
at  sunset  a  streak  of  clear  sky  in  the  west,  giving  hopes  that  the 
wind  was  about  to  shift  to  that  quarter.  These  hopes  were  con- 
firmed ;  a  favorable  breeze  succeeded,  but  the  sea  still  ran  so 
high  and  tumultuously  that  little  sail  could  be  carried  during 
the  night. 

On  the  morning  of  the  15th,  at  daybreak,  a  cry  of  land  was 
given  by  a  mariner  in  the  main-top.  A  near  approach  proved  it 
to  be  an  island ;  it  was  but  five  leagues  distant.  For  two  days 
they  hovered  in  sight  of  the  island,  vainly  striving  to  reach  it,* 
or  to  arrive  at  another  island  of  which  they  occasionally  caught 
glimpses  through  the  mist  and  rack  of  the  tempest.  On  the 
evening  of  the  17th  they  approached  so  near  the  first  island  as  to 
cast  anchor,  but,  parting  their  cable,  had  to  put  to  sea  again, 
where  they  remained  beating  about  until  the  following  morning. 
On  sending  the  boat  to  land,  Columbus  ascertained  the  island 
to  be  St.  Mary's,  the  most  southern  of  the  Azores." 

The  Nina  was  one  of  the  vessels  of  the  fleet  with  which  Colum- 

*  The  wind  had  changed  and  blew  directly  from  the  land. 


428  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

bus  made  his  second  voyage  to  the  New  World.  While  here  in 
port  Isabella  "  a  terrible  storm  swept  the  island.  It  was  one  of 
those  awful  whirlwinds  which  occasionally  rage  within  the  tropics, 
and  were  called  by  the  Indians  ruicans,  a  name  they  still  retain, 
with  trifling  variation.  About  midday  a  furious  wind  sprang  up 
from  the  east,  driving  before  it  dense  volumes  of  cloud  and  vapor. 
Encountering  another  tempest  of  wind  from  the  west,  it  appeared 
as  if  a  violent  conflict  ensued.  The  clouds  were  rent  by  incessant 
flashes,  or,  rather,  streams  of  lightning.  At  one  time  they  were 
piled  up  high  in  the  sky ;  at  another  they  swept  to  the  earth,  fill- 
ing the  air  with  baleful  darkness  more  dismal  than  the  obscurity 
of  midnight.  Wherever  the  whirlwind  passed,  whole  tracts  of 
forests  were  shivered  and  stripped  of  their  leaves  and  branches ; 
those  of  gigantic  size,  which  resisted  the  blast,  were  torn  up  by  the 
roots  and  hurled  to  a  great  distance.  Groves  were  rent  from  the 
mountain  precipices,  with  vast  masses  of  rock  and  earth  tumbling 
into  the  valleys  with  terrific  noise  and  choking  the  course  of 
rivers.  The  fearful  sounds  in  the  air  and  on  the  earth,  the  peal- 
ing thunder,  the  vivid  lightning,  the  howling  of  the  wind,  the 
crashing  of  falling  trees  and  rocks,  filled  everyone  with  affright, 
and  many  thought  that  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand.  Some 
fled  to  caverns  for  safety,  for  their  frail  houses  were  blown  down, 
and  the  air  was  filled  with  the  trunks  and  branches  of  trees,  and 
even  with  fragments  of  rocks,  carried  along  by  the  fury  of  the 
tempest.  When  the  hurricane  reached  the  harbor  it  whirled  the 
ships  round  as  they  lay  at  anchor,  snapped  their  cables,  and  sank 
three  of  them,  with  all  who  were  on  board.  Others  were  driven 
about,  dashed  against  each  other,  and  tossed  mere  wrecks  upon 
the  shore  by  the  swelling  surges  of  the  sea,  which  in  some  places 
rolled  for  three  or  four  miles  upon  the  land.  The  tempest  lasted 
for  three  hours.  When  it  had  passed  away  and  the  sun  again  ap- 
peared, the  Indians  regarded  each  other  in  mute  astonishment  and 
dismay.  Never  in  their  memory  nor  in  the  traditions  of  their  an- 
cestors had  the  island  been  visited  by  such  a  storm."*  The  four 
caravals  of  Aguado  were  destroyed,  with  two  others  which  were 
in  the  harbor.  The  only  vessel  which  survived  was  the  Nina,  and 
that  in  a  very  shattered  condition.  Columbus  gave  orders  to  have 
it  immediately  repaired  and  another  caraval  constructed  out  of 
the  wreck  of  those  which  had  been  destroyed.  The  new  vessel, 
the  Santa  Cruz,  being  finished  and  the  Nina  repaired,  on  the  10th 
of  March,  1496,  they  sailed  for  Spain.  Columbus  embarked  on 
the  Nina,  and  in  the  other  Aguado.  Lorgues  in  his  "  Life  and 

*  Washington  Irving' s  "  Life  of  Columbus." 


CHAP.  XL.]  OF    AMERICA. 

Voyages  of  Christopher  Columbus''  (French)  says:  "Alas!  of 
Aguado's  four  caravals,  and  three  others  that  were  at  anchor,  only 
a  single  one  remained — the  smallest,  the  oldest,  and  the  most 
fragile  of  all — the  Nina !  That  caraval  which  had  succored  the 
Admiral  in  his  shipwreck  at  Navidad,  which  had  brought  him 
back  to  Palos,  which  had  afterwards,  under  the  name  of  Santa 
Clara,  borne  him  to  the  explorations  of  Cuba,  the  discovery  of  Ja- 
maica,-and  the  archipelago  of  the  '  Queen's  Garden,'  whence  she 
had  returned  rickety,  leaky,  and  ready  to  founder  in  the  port, 
seeming  to  be  inevitably  doomed  to  perish  !"  Columbus  immedi- 
ately ordered  the  repairing  of  the  Santa  Clara  and  the  building  of 
another  caraval,  which  he  named  the  Santa  Cruz. 

The  squadron  with  which  Columbus  made  his  fourth  voyage  and 
went  as  far  west  as  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  consisted  of  four  cara- 
vals, the  smallest  being  only  fifty  tons  burden,  and  the  largest 
seventy.  These  small  vessels  encountered  in  the  Caribbean  Sea 
storms  as  dreadful  as  those  which  the  Nina  had  experienced,  and, 
like  it,  had  survived  them. 

It  was  early  in  the  morning  of  the  6th  of  September,  1492,  that 
Columbus  sailed  from  the  island  of  Gomera,  one  of  the  Canary 
cluster  of  islands,  to  cross  the  Atlantic  Ocean  the  first  time,  and  it 
was  on  Friday  morning,  the  12th  of  October,  1492,  that  he  first 
beheld  the  New  World.  It  thus  appears  that  his  squadron  was 
thirty-seven  days  at  sea. 

On  his  second  voyage,  when  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  from  the 
Canary  Islands,  "  the  13th  of  October  a  fair  breeze  sprung  up  from 
the  east  which  soon  carried  them  out  of  sight  of  the  island  of 
Ferro.  Being  in  the  region  of  the  trade-winds  the  breeze  contin- 
ued fair  and  steady  with  a  quiet  sea  and  pleasant  weather,  and  by 
the  24th  they  had  made  four  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  west  of 
Gomera  (one  of  the  Canary  cluster  of  islands).  On  the  morning 
of  Sunday,  the  3d  of  November,  he  arrived  at  Dominica,  thus 
crossing  the  Atlantic  in  twenty-one  days. 

On  his  third  voyage  he  left  Spain  with  six  vessels,  but  off  the 
Canary  Islands  he  dispatched  three  vessels  of  his  squadron  direct 
to  Hispaniola,  and  with  the  three  remaining  vessels  proceeded  to 
the  Cape  Verde  Islands,  and  thence  sailed  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
The  ship  on  which  he  sailed  was  decked  and  of  a  hundred  tons 
burden;  the  other  two  were  merchant  caravals.  Of  this  vovage,  if 
the  days  he  was  becalmed  (eight)  and  the  days  he  was  in  sight  of 
the  Island  del  Fuego  (two)  be  deducted  from  the  time  he  was 
sailing  across  the  Atlantic,  it  leaves  the  voyage  only  sixteen  days, 
but  in  this  voyage,  when  he  believed  he  had  reached  the  longi- 


430  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XL. 

tude  of  the  Caribbean  Islands,  he  bore  towards  the  northward  in 
search  of  them.  It  is  not  mentioned  how  many  days  he  sailed 
northward  till  he  discovered  the  island  of  Trinidad,  but  it  is  prob- 
able that  had  he  continued  on  his  westward  course  he  would  have 
discovered  land  much  earlier,  and  thus  have  diminished  the 
length  of  the  voyage,  reducing  it  to  less  than  sixteen  days. 

On  his  fourth  voyage  Columbus  left  the  Canary  Islands  on  the 
evening  of  the  25th  of  May  for  the  New  World.  The  trade-winds 
were  so  favorable  that  the  little  squadron  of  three  vessels,  one  of 
which  was  of  fifty  tons  burden,  swept  gently  on  its  course  without 
shifting  a  sail,  and  arrived  on  the  15th  of  June  at  Mantinano,  so 
called  by  the  Indians,  and  supposed  to  be  Martinico.'"* 

The  Carthaginians,  as  a  maritime  nation,  became  acquainted  with 
the  ocean  tides  and  currents  and  the  winds  along  the  coast  where 
they  traded.  It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  they  were  acquainted 
with  the  trade-winds,  and  that  they  knew  of  the  monsoons  by 
which  the  vessels  of  the  ancients  leaving  the  coast  of  Arabia  were 
wafted  across  the  ocean  to  India.  The  trade-winds  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  are  similar  to  the  monsoons  of  the  Indian  Ocean.  Hum- 
boldt,  who,  in  the  year  1799,  crossed  the  Atlantic  from  the  Canary 
Islands  to  the  port  of  Cumana  in  New  Andalusia,  thus  speaks  of 
this  route  and  the  trade-winds : 

u  We  left  the  road  of  Santa  Croix  (one  of  the  Canary  Islands)  in 
the  afternoon  of  the  25th  of  June,  and  we  directed  our  course  to 
South  America.  It  was  blowing  very  fresh  from  the  northwest, 
and  we  soon  lost  sight  of  the  Canary  Islands;  the  Peak  (Teneriffe, 
eleven  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty  feet  high)  alone  appeared 
from  time  to  time  through  the  clear  places. 

Our  passage  from  Santa  Croix  to  Cumana,  the  most  eastern  part 
of  Terra  Firma,  was  most  favorable.  Our  route  was  that  followed 
by  all  the  vessels  destined  for  the  Antilles  from  the  first  voyage 
of  Columbus.  Arrived  at  the  zone  where  the  trade-winds  are  con- 
stant, we  crossed  the  ocean  from  east  to  west  on  a  sea  so  calm  and 
quiet  that  the  Spanish  navigators  called  it  el  Golf  de  las  Dames.  We 
experienced — as  all  those  who  have  frequented  these  latitudes — 
that  in  degree  as  we  advanced  towards  the  west  the  trade-winds, 
which  are  at  first  from  the  east-northeast,  settled  from  the  east. 
Navigators  knew  for  centuries  that  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean  the 
equator  did  not  coincide  with  the  line  which  separates  the  trade- 
winds  of  the  northeast  from  the  general  winds  of  the  southeast. 
This  line,  as  Halley  has  very  well  observed,  is  found  in  the  third 
or  fourth  degree  of  north  latitude. 

*  Washington  Irving's  "  Life  of  Columbus." 


CHAP.  XL.]  OF    AMERICA.  431 

It  is  known  that  in  the  passage  from  Santa  Croix  to  Cumana, 
as  in  that  from  Acapulco  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  the  sailors 
have  scarcely  any  necessity  to  touch  the  sails.  They  navigate  in 
these  latitudes  as  if  they  were  descending  a  river ;  and  we  believe 
that  it  would  not  be  a  hazardous  enterprise  to  make  the  voyage  in 
a  long-boat  without  deck. 

In  proportion  as  we  leave  the  coast  of  Africa  the  wind  moderates 
more  and  more.  It  often  calms  for  several  hours,  and  these  petty 
calms  are  regularly  interrupted  by  electric  phenomena.  Dark 
clouds,  heavy  and  of  marked  contour,  form  in  the  east.  One  would 
have  said  a  gust  of  wind  was  going  to  force  them  to  lower  and  take 
in  the  topsails,  but  very  soon  the  breeze  freshens  again,  a  few  large 
drops  of  rain  fall,  and  the  storm  is  dissipated.  It  is  by  the  aid  of 
these  little  gusts  of  wind,  which  alternate  with  calms,  that  they 
pass,  in  the  months  of  June  and  July,  from  the  Canaries  to  the 
Antilles  or  to  the  coasts  of  South  America."* 

The  shortest  distance  between  Africa  and  America  is  from  Sierra 
Leone,  where  were  founded  the  Carthaginian  colonies  by  Hanno, 
and  Cape  St.  Roque  in  Brazil,  which  is  somewhat  more  than  half 
the  distance  from  the  Canary  Islands  to  the  Caribbean  Islands,  or 
about  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  which  is  only  four  hun- 
dred miles  naore  than  the  distance  Columbus  made  in  eleven  days 
on  his  second  voyage.f 

"  The  same  chances  which  led  Christopher  Columbus  to  un- 
known countries  when  he  was  seeking  a  route  to  the  west  to  reach 
the  eastern  coasts  of  the  Indies  and  of  China  may  have  carried  other 
navigators  to  the  continent  which  is  to  the  west  of  Europe  and 
Africa.  Contrary  storms  have  been  able  to  carry  there  the  Phoeni- 
cians in  driving  them  from  the  coasts  of  Africa,  to  which  they 
went  merely  to  traffic,  in  leaving  the  ports  which  they  had  on  the 
Red  Sea.  "| 

But  it  is  quite  as  possible  that  a  knowledge  of  the  trade-winds 
and  the  passion  for  commerce  and  gold  induced  the  Carthaginians 
to  venture  beyond  the  Cape  Verde  and  the  Canary  Islands,  as  the 
same  impulse  had  impelled  the  Tyrians  to  circumnavigate  Africa. 

There  is  no  account  of  the  Carthaginians  having  ever  made  a 
voyage  from  Africa  to  America,  but  from  what  has  been  hereto- 

*  Humboldt  left  the  Canaries  the  25th  of  June,  in  a  slow-sailing  vessel,  and 
arrived  at  Cumena  the  16th  of  July,  1799. 

f  Not  having  facilities  for  obtaining  exact  distances,  those  here  given  are 
from  compass  measurements  on  maps,  and  do  not  pretend  to  be  exact,  but 
approximate,  distances. 

t  Pluch. 


432  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

fore  related  of  them  it  will  hardly  be  doubted  that  they  had  the 
ability  to  do  so ;  but  there  is  an  account  of  a  voyage  more  extra- 
ordinary than  any  that  has  ever  been  made  either  in  ancient  or 
in  modern  times,  and  shows  how  countries  may  have  been  popu- 
lated in  ancient  times.  A  launch,  commanded  by  Lieutenant 
Bligh,  with  eighteen  persons  whose  weight,  together  with  that  of 
the  few  articles  they  were  permitted  to  take  with  them,  brought 
down  the  boat  so  near  the  water  as  to  endanger  her  sinking  with 
but  a  moderate  swell  of  the  sea,  and  to  all  human  appearances  in 
no  state  to  survive  the  length  of  the  voyage  they  were  destined  to 
perform  over  the  ocean,  passed  in  forty-one  days  a  distance  over 
the  Pacific  Ocean  of  three  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighteen  nau- 
tical miles  in  safety*  from  Tofoa,  one  of  the  Friendly  Islands  in 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  to  Timor,  one  of  the  islands  of  the  East  Indies. 
Considering  that  such  a  voyage  was  made  under  the  most  trying 
circumstances,  who  can  doubt  that  a  Carthaginian  ship,  as  large 
if  not  larger  than  the  Nina,  with  two  masts,  four  sails,  fifty  oars, 
and  one  hundred  and  seventy  men,  could  have  securely  sailed 
across  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
from  Africa  to  America ! 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

Migrations  —  Transmission  of  Names  —  The  Phoceans  —  Massalia — Samians — 
Tartepus — Caravan  Routes — The  Country  of  the  Mongols  and  Toltecans — 
Kalkas  Tartars — The  Toltecs'  Route — Aleutian  Islands — Indian  Offshoots 
— Tepes — Volney's  Description  of  Indians — Volney  on  Languages — Me- 
shikenakwa  or  Little  Turtle — Jefferson  on  Language— President  D.  S.Jor- 
dan on  the  Urgent  Need  of  a  National  University. 

FROM  remote  time,  people  emigrating  or  expelled  from  their  own 
country  and  settling  in  another  have  taken  with  them  the  relig- 
ious and  political  institutions  of  the  mother  country,  and  have 
named  their  cities  after  those  of  their  former  homes,  thus  associat- 
ing with  the  name  of  the'  city  or  province  the  origin  of  their  peo- 
ple. Thus  the  inhabitants  of  Massenia,  a  country  of  Pelepon- 
nesus,  when  they  could  no  longer  successfully  resist  the  Lacedemo- 
nians, left  (625  B.  c.)  their  native  country  and  emigrated  to  Sicily, 
where,  aided  by  Anaxites,  king  of  Regium,  they  took  the  city  of 

*  There  were,  at  first,  nineteen  men,  but  soon  after  their  departure  one  was 
killed  by  the  natives  of  an  island  where  they  had  stopped  for  provisions.  See 
"  A  Description  of  Pitcairn  Island." 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF    AMERICA.  433 

Zaucle,  spared  and  incorporated  the  inhabitants  with  themselves, 
and  changed  its  name  to  Massena,  which  exists  to  this  day. 

The  Phoenician  power,  which  had  attained  its  apogee  about  the 
eleventh  century  before  Christ,  maintained  itself  in  all  its  devel- 
opment among  the  eastern  races  during  three  or  four  hundred 
years.  The  revolutions  of  Asia,  the  subversion  of  the  metropolis, 
the  great  city  of  Tyre,  overwhelmed  by  the  Assyrians,  led  to  the 
ruin  of  the  Phoenician  colonies  of  Europe.  The  Gauls,  the  Legu- 
rians,  the  Aquitains,  seized  upon  the  mines  which  the  Phoenicians 
had  taught  them  to  work ;  the  Greeks,  whose  young  civilization 
began  to  radiate  into  all  the  Mediterranean,  took  possession  of  the 
Phoenician  ports  of  the  Galla-Ligurian  coast.  The  Rhodeans, 
who  then  held  the  first  rank  among  the  Grecian  Isles,  founded  a 
uew  Rhodes  between  the  mouths  of  the  Rhine,  but  they  were  very 
far  from  elevating  themselves  to  the  grandeur  of  the  Phoenicians, 
and  their  settlements  were  already  on  the  decline  when  there  ar- 
rived from  Asiatic  Greece  a  colony  whose  destiny  was  to  be  more 
brilliant  and  more  durable. 

"  In  the  year  600  before  Jesus  Christ,  the  first  Phocean  vessel 
anchored  on  the  coast  of  Gaul,  to  the  east  of  the  Rhine ;  it  was 
commanded  by  a  merchant  named  Euxene,  engaged  in  a  voyage 
of  discovery.  The  gulf  where  he  landed  depended  upon  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Segobriges,  one  of  the  Gallic  tribes  that  had  main- 
tained its  liberty  in  the  midst  of  the  Legurian  population.  The 
chief  or  king  of  the  Segobriges,  whom  the  historians  called  Nann, 
welcomed  with  friendship  these  strangers  and  led  them  to  his 
home,  where  a  great  feast  was  prepared,  for  that  day  his  daughter 
was  to  marry.  Mingled  among  the  Gallic  and  Ligurian  aspirants 
the  Greeks  took  their  place  at  the  feast,  which  consisted,  accord- 
ing to  usage,  of  venison  and  cooked  herbs. 

The  young  woman,  named  Gyptis  according  to  some,  and  Petta 
according  to  others,  did  not  appear  during  the  repast.  The  Ibe- 
rian custom,  preserved  among  the  Ligurians  and  adopted  by  the 
Segobriges,  required  that  she  should  not  appear  until  the  end  of 
it,  bearing  in  her  hand  a  cup  filled  with  some  beverage,  and  that 
he  to  whom  she  presented  it  to  drink  was  to  be  reputed  the  spouse 
of  her  choice.  At  the  moment  when  the  feast  was  ended  she 
therefore  entered,  and,  either  by  chance  or  some  other  cause,  says  an 
ancient  narrative,  stepped  in  front  of  Euxene  and  tendered  to  him 
the  cup.  The  unexpected  choice  struck  with  surprise  the  whole 
assembly.  Nann  believed  he  saw  in  it  a  superior  inspiration  and 
an  order  of  his  gods.  He  called  the  Phocean,  his  son-in-law,  and 
gave  him  as  a  dower  the  gulf  where  he  had  landed. 

28 


434  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

Without  losing  time,  Euxenesentto  Phoceahis  vessel  and  some 
of  his  companions  charged  to  recruit  colonists  in  the  mother  coun- 
try. In  the  meantime  he  laid  the  foundation  of  a  town  which  he 
called  Massalia.* 

In  the  meantime  the  messengers  of  Euxerie  reached  the  coast 
of  Asia  Minor  and  the  port  of  Phocea.  They  made  known  to  the 
magistrates  the  marvellous  adventures  of  this  voyage,  and  how, 
in  regions  of  which  they  scarcely  knew  the  existence,  Phocea  had 
suddenly  found  herself  mistress  of  a  territory  and  the  favor  of  a 
powerful  king.  Excited  by  these  accounts,  the  young  men  en- 
listed in  crowds,  and  the  public  treasury,  according  to  usage, 
was  charged  with  the  expense  of  transportation,  and  furnished  the 
provisions,  utensils,  arms,  divers  seeds,  as  well  as  plants  of  the 
olive  and  the  vine.  At  their  departure  the  emigrants  took  from 
the  sacred  hearth  of  Phocea  fire  destined  to  perpetually  burn  upon 
the  sacred  altar  of  Massalia,  a  living  and  poetical  image  of  the 
affection  which  they  promised  the  mother  country  ;  then  the  long 
Phoenician  galleys  of  fifty  oars,  and  bearing  at  the  prow  the  sculp- 
tured image  of  a  Phocean,  departed  from  the  port.  They  repaired 
first  to  Ephesus,  where  an  oracle  had  ordered  them  to  land.  There 
a  woman  of  high  rank,  named  Aristarche,  revealed  to  the  chief  of 
the  expedition  that  Diana,  the  great  goddess  of  Ephesus,  had  or- 
dered her,  in  one  of  her  dreams,  to  take  one  of  her  statues,  and  to 
go  and  establish  her  adoration  in  Gaul.  Transported  with  joy, 
the  Phoceans  welcomed  on  board  the  priestess  and  her  divinity, 
and  a  fortunate  passage  conducted  them  to  the  shores  of  the 
Segobriges.  Massalia  prospered,  enlarged  and  re-erected  the  for- 
tified posts  of  the  Phoenicians  and  Rhodeans/f 

According  to  Herodotus  the  Phoceans  were  the  first  people  of 
the  Hellenes  who  performed  long  voyages.  They  discovered  the 
Adriatic  Sea,  Tursenia,  Iberia  and  Tartessus,  and  they  made  their 
voyages,  not  in  merchant  vessels,  but  in  war  galleys.  When  they 
arrived  at  Tartessus  they  were  hospitably  received  by  the  king  of 
the  Tartessians,  whose  name  was  Argenthonius.  He  reigned  over 
Tartessus  for  eighty  years,  and  lived  one  hundred  and  twenty. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  subjects  of  Argenthonius  were 
the  colonies  of  early  Phoenicia,  who  were  totally  independent  of 
Carthage,  and  were  a  rich,  prosperous  and  enlightened  race  of 
men.  Their  chief  city,  the  river  on  whose  banks  it  was  built,  as 
well  as  the  adjacent  territory,  were  all  called  Tartessus,  being  the 

*  Which  word  or  name  finally  became  Marseille,  the  celebrated  seaport  city  on 
the  Mediterranean.     Massalia  rose  to  power  on  the  ruins  of  Carthage, 
f  Martin's  "History  of  France." 


CHAP.  XLI.]  .OF    AMERICA.  435 

emporium  with  which  the  fleets  of  Solomon  traded,  and  whence 
the  Sidonians  procured  that  tin,  without  which  they  could  not 
have  manufactured  that  bronze  which  from  the  earliest  period 
was  so  largely  made  and  so  widely  diffused  by  Sidon,  "abound- 
ing in  bronze."  The  earliest  specific  notice  of  any  intercourse 
between  the  historic  Hellenes  and  these  flourishing  colonies  of 
the  ancient  Phoenicians  is  in  the  fourth  book  of  Herodotus,  where 
he  describes  the  colonization  of  Gyrene  by  the  Theroeans.  This 
event  took  place  at  least  638  years  before  Christ.  As  a  prepara- 
tory step  they  had  sent  a  vessel  to  reconnoitre  the  coast,  and  hav- 
ing discovered  the  island  of  Platea,  took  possession  of  it,  and  left 
their  pilot  Correbus  to  occupy  it  until  their  return.  They  sup- 
plied him  with  provisions  adequate  to  his  use  for  a  certain  time. 
"  But,"  writes  Herodotus,  "  when  they  continued  absent  beyond 
the  appointed  time,  the  whole  store  of  Coroebus  was  consumed. 
But  then  a  Samian  ship,  whose  owner  was  Coleus,  on  her  voyage 
to  Egypt,  touched  at  this  island,  Platea,  and,  after  leaving  with  him 
a  year's  provision,  sailed  from  the  island  for  Egypt,  but  were  car- 
ried from  their  course  by  an  east  wind,  and  as  the  gale  continued 
they  passed  through  the  Herculean  Pillars  and  arrived  at  Tartes- 
sus.  These  men,  having  returned  safe,  were  the  greatest  gainers 
from  their  cargo  of  all  the  Hellenes  of  whom  we  have  any  accurate 
account."  From  the  tenth  of  their  profits  they  dedicated  a  mag- 
nificent bronze  cauldron  to  their  patron  goddess,  Hera,  which, 
with  its  three  colossal  supporters,  also  of  bronze,  and  seven  cubits 
tall,  remained  till  the  time  of  Herodotus,  a  lasting  memorial  of 
their  prosperous  visit  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

There  cannot  be  much  doubt  that  the  cargo  of  the  Samian  ves- 
sel which  made  this  fortunate  voyage  consisted  principally  of  the 
amber  of  the  northwest  coast  of  Europe,  of  the  tin  of  Great  Britain, 
and  of  the  silver  produce  of  the  Spanish  mines,  for  Tartes- 
sus  was  the  great  emporium  of  all  these  highly  valued  materials. 
Phocea  long  profited  by  her  daring  enterprise,  but  the  invasion 
and  conquest  of  Ionia  by  the  armies  of  Cyrus  gave  a  fatal  blow 
to  her  prosperity.  A  portion  of  her  citizens  abandoned  their 
native  land  and  found  rest  and  a  home  in  Massalia,  where,  in  the 
days  of  her  supremacy,  the  parent  city  had  founded  a  colony  six 
hundred  years  before  Christ.* 

*  John  Williams,  Archdeacon  of  Cardigan,  in  one  of  his  "Essays  on  Vari- 
ous Subjects,"  London,  18-18.  Anthon,  in  his  "Classical  Dictionary,"  says: 
"The  Phocians  resolved  to  sail  to  Corsica,  where  twenty  years  prior  to  these 
events  they  had  founded  a  town  named  Alalia."  But  as  Marsellia  was  settled 
previous  to  Alalia,  it  may  reasonably  be  conjectured  that  they  went  to  it  or  to 
both  places. 


436  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

The  Carthaginians  founded  a  city  in  Spain  and  called  it  New 
Carthage,  after  the  mother  city  in  Africa ;  and  it  has  already  been 
mentioned  how  Tartessus,  on  the  river  Beatis,  in  Spain,  founded 
by  the  Cilicians,  was  named  after  the  capital  of  Cilicia,  Tarsus,  on 
the  river  Cydnus.* 

And  so  in  modern  times  in  the  founding  of  cities  and  colonies 
in  America.  The  English  named  Plymouth  after  a  town  in  Eng- 
land, whence  the  colony  had  sailed.  The  Hollanders,  when  they 
settled  on  Manhattan  Island,  named  their  town  New  Amsterdam. 
When  the  Palatines  settled  in  North  Carolina,  New  Bern  was 
named  after  the  capital  of  Switzerland.  The  French  of  Louisiana 
named  their  capital  New  Orleans,  after  Orleans  in  France,  though 
it  was  said  to  be  named  after  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  at  that  time 
Regent  of  France.  The  word  new  shows  that  it  was  to  distin- 
guish it  from  the  old  city. 

If  we  turn  to  South  America,  there  is  found  the  same  custom 
of  naming  cities  and  provinces  after  those  of  Spain,  whence  its 
colonies  came. 

Now  this  same  custom  can  be  traced  among  the  Aztecs  and 
Toltecas.  There  is  in  Mongolia,  north  of  the  Great  Desert,  a  town 
called  Kara-korum,  formerly  the  capital  of  the  empire  of  Genghis 
Khan,  and  in  the  region  in  which  this  city  is  situated  a  desert 
and  a  river  each  called  "  Tulti,"  or  Tolla. 

Atkinson,  in  his  "  Travels  in  the  Regions  of  the  Upper  and 
Lower  Amoor,"  says:  "During  my  wanderings  I  became  ac- 
quainted with  several  merchants  who  had  frequently  visited  Yar- 
kand,  Kashgar,  and  Cashmere.  Between  these  places  caravans 
often  pass,  so  that  various  wares  are  constantly  being  transported 
through  this  country  without  any  extraordinary  difficulty.  It  is 
a  well-known  fact  that  the  caravans  which  travel  from  Kulja  into 
some  of  the  interior  provinces  of  China  encounter  greater  dangers 
than  will  be  met  with  between  Yarkand,  Kashgar,  and  the  Indus. 

From  Yarkand  there  is  a  caravan-road  going  to  the  northeast 
in  a  direct  course  into  Mongolia ;  numerous  routes  branch  from  it 
into  the  tea  provinces  and  to  various  parts  of  the  Chinese  empire. 

Yarkand  is  a  place  of  considerable  trade,  and  a  great  number  of 
Chinese,  Tartar,  Bakarian  and  Cashmerian  merchants  reside  there. 
Formerly  Persians  were  also  numerous,  but  now  there  are  but 
few  in  the  city.  The  bazars  are  three  miles  and  a  half  in  length. 

*  Herodotus  says  that  the  people  of  Cilicia  were  anciently  called  Hypochsei, 
and  that  the  appellation  of  Cilicians  was  subsequently  derived  from  Cilix,  son 
of  Agenor,  a  Phoenician.  This  passage  seems  to  point  to  a  Phoenician  origin,  a 
supposition  strengthened  by  the  commercial  habits  of  the  people  of  Cilicia. 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF    AMERICA.  437 

Rich  silks  and  porcelain  are  conspicuously  displayed ;  also  brick- 
tea  appears  in  vast  quantities,  as  well  as  printed  calicoes  from  Ko- 
kan.  The  loom  of  Cashmere  contributed  its  quota  to  the  mass  of 
manufactured  goods.* 

Shortly  after  leaving  Yarkand  the  route  crosses  the  river  of  that 
name,  and  then  proceeds  to  the  northeast  and  passes  the  Kashgar 
at  the  small  town  of  Bar-tchuk,  after  which  it  follows  this  river  for 
more  than  two  hundred  miles  over  a  fertile  country  till  it  reaches 
Kara-tal,  where  it  crosses  the  Ac-sou.  Hence  it  takes  a  course  to- 
wards the  Syan-shan  Mountains,  crossing  the  river  Sha-yar, 
whence  it  turns  due  north  to  Koutche,  which  contains  a  Chinese 
garrison.  To  the  north  of  this  place  is  the  Moussoor-Daban  (or 
pass),  on  the  route  to  Kuljar.  After  passing  Koutche  the  route 
runs  to  Tokanai,  along  the  foot  of  Youldouz  Mountains,  through 
Youggur,till  it  reaches  Kalgaman,  then  to  Kara-shara.  The  next 
town  of  importance  through  which  it  passes  is  Tourfan,  and  then 
Pidjan.  On  leaving  Pidjan  the  route  ascends  the  first  ranges  of 
Kongar-adzirgan,  then  crosses  the  chain  and  joins  the  route  com- 
ing from  Tarbagati  and  Tchou-bachak,  and  thence  to  Barkol  or 
Tchin-si.  Numerous  caravans  pass  through  this  place  on  their 
way  to  Tchou-bachak  and  Ourga. 

On  leaving  Barkol,  or  Tchin-si,  the  route  passes  for  more  than 
two  hundred  miles  over  a  grassy  steppe,  on  which  the  Mongol 
tribes  find  good  pasture  for  their  herds  of  horses  and  cattle.  It 
then  enters  the  sandy  plain  of  Tchagan  Tola.  Water  is  found  here, 
but  very  little  pasture.  Having  passed  this  dreary  waste  the 
traveller  reaches  the  northern  slopes  of  Khangai-Oula,  where  pas- 
ture and  water  are  abundant.  It  then  crosses  the  chain  at  a  point 
about  fifty  miles  west  of  Kara-korum,  on  the  river  Orkhon.  Here 
is  the  town,  once  so  famed,  where  Genghis  Khan  held  his  court. 
A  friend  of  mine,  a  Cossack  officer,  with  a  party  of  his  men  and 
two  mining  engineers,  explored  the  Orkhon  twenty-five  years  ago 
in  search  of  gold,  when  they  visited  the  site  of  the  ancient  capital 
of  the  Mongols.  I  ascertained  from  his  description'  that  there  are 
few  remains  left  to  mark  its  magnitude,  and  nothing  to  indicate 
any  former  splendor. 

The  northeastern  face  of  the  Khangai-Oula  Mountains  gives  rise 
to  a  great  many  rivers  that  fall  into  the  Selenga,  which  collects 
nearly  all  the  waters  on  the  south  and  west  of  the  Baikal  and  be- 
comes the  great  affluent  of  that  mountain  sea.  The  route  then 

*  By  these  articles  of  merchandise  is  indicated  the  immense  extent  of  the 
caravan  communications  with  Yarkand.  It  is  well  to  reflect  that  these  routes, 
or,  at  least,  several  of  them,  have  existed  for  ages. 


438  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

descends  into  the  valley  of  the  Orkhon  and  passes  some  ruins  on 
the  shore  of  a  small  lake.* 

It  then  follows  the  north  bank  of  the  Orkhon  for  more  than 
one  hundred  miles  to  its  juncture  with  the  Tola.  This  river  runs 
from  the  east,  having  its  rise  on  the  western  side  of  the  Kingan 
Mountains,  and  on  the  eastern  face  of  the  chain  is  the  source  of 
the  Keroulun,  the  longest  affluent  of  the  Amoor.  After  crossing  the 
Orkhon  a  little  below  the  juncture  of  the  rivers  the  route  turns 
due  east  for  about  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles  till  it  joins  the 
road  between  the  Chinese  towns  of  Mai-ma-tchin  and  Ourga.  It 
enters  the  road  at  Kountsai,  about  sixty  miles  from  Ourga  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty  from  Mai-ma-tchin,  From  this  point  the 
caravans  follow  the  post-road,  going  over  the  mountains  to  Mai- 
ma-tchin,  '  the  place  of  trade,'  which  stands  on  the  edge  of  a 
plain  which  stretches  to  the  south  to  a  chain  of  wooded  hills,  ex- 
tending to  the  east  thirty  or  forty  miles,  nearly  to  the  river  Kiran, 
while  to  the  west  it  runs  up  towards  the  Selenga.  The  plain  is 
said  to  be  about  twenty-five  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
sea."f 

"  Of  all  the  Mongol  nations  dependent  on  China  the  most  nu- 
merous and  famous  are  the  Kalkas,  who  take  their  name  from  the 
river  Kalka.  Their  country  extends  from  Mount  Altai,  in  the 
west,  to  the  province  of  Solon  in  the  east,  and  from  the  fifty-first 
degree  of  latitude  to  the  northern  extremity  of  the  great  desert  of 
Kobi.  The  Kalkas,  descendants  of  the  Mongols,  were,  about  the 
year  1368,  expelled  from  China,  and  retreating  northward  settled 
chiefly  along  the  rivers  Selinga,  Orkhon,  Tula,  and  Kerlon,  where 
they  returned  to  the  roving  and  sordid  life  of  their  ancestors. 

The  Kerlon,  which  is  about  sixty  feet  broad,  and  not  deep, 
washes  the  richest  pastures  of  the  Tartars.  The  Tula,  or  Tola, 
runs  from  east  to  west,  and,  in  most  places,  is  larger,  deeper,  and 
more  rapid  than  the  Kerlon  ;  has  fine  meadows  and  more  woods  ; 
the  mountains  on  the  north  side  are  covered  with  large  fir.  This 
river,  having  joined  itself  to  three  others  which  come  from  the 
southwest,  runs  towards  the  north,  and,  after  being  increased  by 
several  others,  flows  into  the  great  lake  Baikal. 

Kara-korum  was  to  the  north  of  the  great  desert  Kobi  and  near  a 
lake.  It  was  the  imperial  seat  of  the  Khans  till  Kublay  removed  it 
toSheng-tu,  which  continued  to  be  their  summer  residence  as  long 
as  the  Mongols  were  in  possession  of  China,  but  after  their  expul- 
sion, about  the  year  1368,  it  is  probable  Kara-korum  became  again 

*  This  is  claimed  to  be  the  site  of  Kara-korum. 
t  Atkinson. 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF    AMERICA.  439 

the  seat  of  the  Khans.     Neither  the  time  nor  the  occasion  of  the 
destruction  of  Kara-korum  is  mentioned  by  any  historians  known 

to  us."* 

• 

The  Toltecas  being  banished  from  their  own  country  596  A.  D., 
which  appears  to  have  been  the  kingdom  of  Tollan  (Toltecolt 
signifying  an  inhabitant  of  Tolland),  wandered  for  the  space  of 
many  years  till  they  arrived  at  a  place  to  which  they  gave  the 
name  Tollantzinco,  about  fifty  miles  east  of  the  spot  where  some 
centuries  after  was  founded  the  famous  city  of  Mexico  ;  but  they 
did  not  choose  to  remain  in  that  country,  and  in  less  than  twenty 
years  after  they  went  about  fifty  miles  to  the  west,  where,  along 
the  banks  of  a  river  they  founded  the  city  of  Tollan,  or  Tula,  so  called 
after  the  name  of  their  native  country,  and  made  it  the  capital  of  their 
kingdom. 

The  Aztecas,  or  Mexicans,  who  were  the  last  people  who  settled 
in  Anahuac,  lived  until  about  the  year  1160  of  the  vulgar  era  in 
Aztlan,  a  country  which  Boturini  says  was  a  province  of  Asia. 
Torquemada  says  he  observed  an  arm  of  the  sea  or  great  river 
represented  in  all  the  ancient  paintings  of  this  migration.!  This 
picture  hardly  represents  a  river,  for  the  Aztecs  in  their  wanderings 
must  have  passed  many  rivers,  and  some  large  ones,  but  the  cross- 
ing of  a  river  would  not  be  an  action  so  remarkable  as  to  deserve 
this  notice,  while  the  crossing  of  a  strait  separating  two  great  coun- 
tries, and  presenting  great  difficulties,  would. 

It  is  more  probable  that  this  picture  represents  Behring  Strait, 
as  all  these  emigrating,  wandering  tribes  are  said  to  have  come 
from  the  north.  They  could  not  have  come  from  any  other  quar- 
ter, had  they  come  from  Asia  to  America,  after  crossing  the  Strait 
of  Behring.  It  may,  however,  allude  to  the  passage  by  the  Aleu- 
tian Islands,  especially  if  the  Copper  Island,  one  of  the  islands  of 
this  group,  contains  copper,  as  from  its  name  it  probably  does, 
for  in  one  of  the  accounts  of  the  emigration  of  one  of  the  tribes 
mention  is  made  of  their  having  arrived  at  a  place  where  they 
found  copper.  The  Fox  Islands  form  one  of  the  cluster  of 
islands  known  as  the  Aleutian  chain.  These  islands  are  all  of 
different  sizes,  below  one  hundred  and  forty  miles  in  length,  which 

*  "  Modern  Universal  History." 

f  In  a  note  to  Clavigero  is  this  :  "  In  several  charts  published  in  the  sixteenth 
century  this  province  appears  situated  to  the  north  of  the  Gulf  of  California. ' ' 
It  is  thus  seen  why  authors  have  made  the  migrations  from  the  north  of  this 
gulf,  and  this  gulf  the  water  represented  in  the  pictorial  account  of  the  migra- 
tions of  the  Aztecs.  Batencourt  makes  Azatlan  two  thousand  seven  hundred 
miles  from  Mexico ! 


440  .  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

is  that  of  Behring  Island,  and  are  divided  by  channels  of  very 
unequal  width.  This  last  is  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  miles 
from  the  harbor  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  in  Kamtschatka. 

Copper  Island,  which  is  mountainous  and  twenty-five  miles 
long,  lies  due  east  of  Behring,  and  is  the  first  of  the  Aleutian  or 
Fox  Islands,  properly  so  denominated ;  Attoo  is  sixty  miles  in 
length,  and  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  miles  from  Copper 
Island  ;  next  is  Agattoo,  twenty  miles  distant,  and  six  in  length  ; 
then  Baldyr,  an  oval  rock,  six  miles  by  ten,  distant  seventy  miles, 
and  so  on  regarding  the  rest  to  Omnak,  Oonalaska  and  Oonemak, 
next  to  Alaska. 

The  natives  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  are  of  middle  size,  of  a  very 
dark-brown  and  healthy  complexion,  and  resembling  an  interme- 
diate race  between  the  Mongol  Tartars  and  North  Americans. 
Among  the  barbarous  customs  formerly  practiced  by  the  Aleutians 
was  slaughtering  slaves  of  both  sexes  at  the  funeral  of  their  de- 
ceased chiefs.  Sometimes  the  bodies  of  men  are  partially  em- 
balmed with  dried  moss  and  grass,  and  interred  in  their  best  attire, 
along  with  their  arms  and  other  implements.* 

There  was,  in  1841,  a  tribe  of  Indians  living  south  of  the  Ar- 
kansas River,  on  the  waters  of  the  Washataw.  These  Indians 
were  known  as  the  Tula  tribe,  and  were  the  bravest  of  all  the  In- 
dians in  that  region. 

A  hundred  years  after  the  destruction  of  the  Toltecas  the  Che- 
chemecas  arrived  in  Anahuac  from  the  same  quarter  whence  had 
proceeded  the  Toltecas.  Their  native  country,  the  situation  of 
which  is  unknown,  was  called  Amaquemecan.  They  lived  only 
on  game  and  fruits  and  roots  which  the  earth  spontaneously  pro- 
duced. Their  motive  for  leaving  their  native  country  is  uncer- 
tain, as  likewise  the  etymology  of  the  word  Chechemecalt.f 
There  was  living  in  1700,  on  the  Bayou  Lafourche,  an  outlet  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  in  Louisiana,  a  tribe  of  Indians  called  the 
Chetimachas,  which  is  so  much  like  the  word  Chechemecas,  that 
it  probably  is  the  same  name  written  differently.  There  was  also 
in  Mexico  a  people  called  Otomies,  and  it  may  be  that  the  Potta- 
watomies  have  emigrated  from  Mexico,  as  the  Natchez  and  Chero- 
kees  are  said  to  have  done.  Besides  this,  there  are  the  Mexican 
names  Cachula  and  Guacachula,  which  are  almost  the  same  as 
Guachula,  an  Indian  town  that  was  in  1540  in  what  is  now  the 
State  of  Georgia,  and  is  mentioned  by  Garcelasso,  and  appears  to 
have  been  on  the  Chattahooche  (Katta-Uche)  River. 

*  "Edinburgh  Encyclopaedia." 
t  Clavigero. 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF   AMERICA.  441 

Genseng,  one  of  the  principal  medicines  of  the  Chinese  and  the 
Tartars,  is  found  in  China  and  in  portions  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  probable  that  it  was  introduced  into  this  continent  by  emi- 
grants from  Asia,  and  is  an  evidence  of  intercourse  between  the 
two  hemispheres  at  some  remote  period.  Before  the  discovery 
of  the  root  in  America,  the  root  in  Pekin  frequently  brought  its 
weight  in  gold,  and  ten  times  its  weight  in  silver. 

The  roots,  that  are  divided  or  bifurcated,  are  considered  the 
most  powerful,  and  it  is  said  to  this  kind  it  owes  its  name,  Jin- 
Chen,  like  a  man;  and,  strange  to  say,  the  American  Indian  name, 
ganantoprien,  means  the  same  thing. 

These  Aztecas  brought  with  them  a  word  that  is  found  in  Europe, 
Asia  and  Africa,  and  is  incorporated  into  many  Mexican  words, 
where  in  many,  if  not  all,  instances,  it  has  the  same  signification 
that  it  has  in  the  countries  of  the  Old  World,  where  it  is  found, 
and  that  word  is  Tepe,  which  signifies  mound,  hillock,  hill,  moun- 
tain. It  is  found  in  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  Crimea,  Persia,  Turkestan, 
and  India.  Chevalier,  who  visited  the  Plains  of  Troy  about  the 
year  1790,  being  anxious  to  know  whether  the  Turks  gave  any 
particular  name  to  the  monument  of  Esyetes,  learned  that  they  con- 
sidered it  as  the  tomb  of  an  infidel,  and  gave  to  it  the  appellation, 
Tepe-Udjik,  Udjik  being  the  name  of  a  neighboring  village.  There 
were  in  that  locality,  besides  this  mound,  other  artificial  hillocks, 
viz. :  Bechk-Tepe,  Dios-Tepe,  In-Tepe-Gheule  (name  of  the  Rhse- 
tian  promontory). 

Tepe-Kirman  is  the  name  of  a  mountain  in  the  Crimea.  Vam- 
bery  says  :  "  I,  in  the  meantime,  ascended  the  Slack  hill,  which  is 
situated  in  the  village  from  which  it  derives  its  name,  Kara-tepe, 
from  the  summit  of  which  I  was  able  to  gain  a  view  of  the  Cas- 
pian Sea."  On  the  opposite  (east)  side  of  the  Caspian  was  Gu- 
mush-Tepe. 

The  Abbe  Brasseur,  alluding  to  the  Lake  of  Nicaragua,  says : 
"  This  lake  announces  itself  from  afar  by  the  volcanic  summits  of 
the  island  of  Ometepe,  or  of  the  Two-Mountains." 

Besides  this  word  tepe  there  is  Cachula  and  Guacachula,  in  the 
Mexican  language  very  much  like  "  Guachula,"  the  name  of  an 
Indian  town  in  Georgia  mentioned  by  Garcelasso.  There  is  also 
Colyma,  the  name  of  a  town  and  a  river  in  Siberia,  mentioned  by 
Cochrane,  same  as  Colima,  a  province  of  Mexico,  also  Yebrashka, 
name  of  a  Chukche  chief,  much  like  Nebraska,  the  river  which 
flows  into  the  Missouri. 

Moritz  Wagner,  who  travelled  in  Persia,  says :  "  The  plains  of 
Urmia  present  a  series  of  artificial  mounds  resembling  the  Mo- 


442  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

hills  of  the  Russian  steppes.  The  natives  give  no  other  name  to 
these  artificial  mounds  than  Tepe."  The  Mexicans  have  used  this 
word  to  qualify  many  names.  Tzatzitepec  in  the  Mexican  lan- 
guage means  "  the  hill  of  shouting."  Quetzalcoatl  (Feather  Serpent), 
the  god  of  the  air,  is  said  to  have  once  been  high  priest  of  Tula. 
Whenever  he  intended  to  promulgate  a  law  in  his  kingdom  he  or- 
dered a  crier  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  Tzatzitepec  (the  hill  of 
shouting),  near  the  city  of  Tula,  whose  voice  was  heard  at  the 
distance  of  three  hundred  miles. 

Tepeithuitl,  the  name  given  to  the  month  of  October,  signified 
only  the  festival  of  the  mountains.  They  made  little  mountains  of 
paper,  on  which  they  placed  some  little  serpents  made  of  wood 
and  certain  small  idols,  which  they  put  upon  the  altars  and  wor- 
shipped as  the  images  of  the  gods  of  the  mountains* 

"  The  Tepeacas  not  having  found  inhabitants  in  the  province 
which  they  now  occupy,  built  there  the  town  of  Tepeaca,  on  the 
summit  of  a  triangular  mountain,  which  is  designated  by  its  name."f 

Popocatepec  is  the  name  of  a  mountain.  Chepoltepec  is  the  name 
of  a  hill  in  the  vicinity  of  Mexico. 

The  volcanic  mountain,  Orizaba,  also  has  tepe  or  tepee  in  its 
Mexican  name  Citlaltepec,  and  so  have  the  names  of  other  moun- 
tains and  mountainous  places. 

And  it  is  remarkable  that  the  Sioux  Indians  call  a  certain  moun- 
tain, known  as  the  Devil's  Peak,  or  Devil's  Tower,  in  Wyoming, 
by  the  name  of  Mateo  Tepe,  the  Bear's  Lodge.  This  peak  stands 
on  the  banks  of  the  Belle  Fourche  River,  in  the  northeastern  part 
of  Wyoming,  and  is  a  gigantic  column  of  lava  which  rises  one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet  above  the  level  of  the 
Belle  Fourche  River,  which  flows  at  its  base,  and  the  tower  proper, 
which  is  almost  perpendicular,  is  six  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet 
in  height,  and  can  be  seen  with  a  glass  a  distance  of  one  hundred 
miles.  It  was  used  by  the  Indians  as  a  signal  tower,  from  which 
fires  gave  warning  of  the  approach  of  hostile  tribes  or  of  the  pres- 
ence of  whites. 

Though  the  word  tepe  here  means  lodge,  or  tent,  among  the 
Sioux,  whose  tents,  as  also  those  of  the  Cheyennes,  are  of  a  conical 
form,  and  appearing  at  a  distance,  when  pitched  on  a  plain,  like 
mounds  or  tumuli,  it  is  probable  that  thus  the  name  of  their  tent 
was  derived ;  yet  it  is  remarkable  that  this  word  tepe  is  here  used, 
as  it  is  used  in  several  countries  of  Asia  and  Mexico,  to  designate 
a  mountain. 

In  Central  Asia,  where  probably  the  word  originated,  the  yourts 

*  Clavigero.  t  Richer. 


CHAP.  XLI.J  OP   AMERICA.  443 

of  the  Kirghs  are  of  a  circular  circumference  thirty-four  feet  in  dia- 
meter, five  feet  high  to  the  spring  of  the  dome,  and  twelve  feet  in  the 
centre,  and  must  have  very  much  resembled  tumuli  at  a  distance. 
The  following  are  some  of  the  many  words  that  have  tepe  or  tepee 
in  their  composition,  and,  as  this  word  in  the  Mexican  or  Aztec  lan- 
guage signifies  hill,  hillock,  mountain,  and  elevated  land,  it  may 
in  these  words  refer  to  them  : 

m      .  ~)  States  on  the  side  of  and 

Tustepec,      Tepejacac,       Jauhtepec,     around  the  famou 

Cajotepec,     Tepetloztoc,   Huaxtepec,  \  tain  Popocatepec. 

Quantepec,  Tepetecapac,  Zocatepec, 

Xilotepec,     Tepepan,        Citlaltepec,  the  name  of  Mt.  Origama. 

The  Abbe  Hervas  says  :  l<  When  we  find  the  Hebrew  word  Sacco 
in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  Teutonic,  Latin  languages,  etc.,  it  obliges 
us  to  believe  that  it  belongs  to  the  primitive  language  of  man  after 
the  flood."  If  so,  how  forcible  the  fact  that  the  word  Tepe  is  found 
in  Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  the  Crimea,  Turkestan,  Armenia,  India,  and 
Mexico,  and  in  all  these  countries  has  the  same  signification  and 
is  applied  to  objects  of  the  same  character,  except  that  in 
Mexico  I  do  not  know  of  its  having  been  applied  to  tombs,  tumuli 
or  temples,  though  the  teocallis  have,  through  the  effects  of  time, 
become  huge  tepes, 

The  celebrated  French  traveller,  Volney,  visited  the  United 
States  in  the  year  1795,  where  he  spent  three  years  studying  the 
climate,  laws,  and  the  people  and  their  manners.  He  says :  "  My 
stay  at  Vincennes  afforded  me  some  knowledge  of  the  Indians 
who  were  assembled  there  to  barter  away  the  produce  of  their  red 
hunt.  There  were  four  hundred  or  five  hundred  of  them,  men, 
women  and  children,  of  various  tribes,  as  the  Weeaws,  Payories, 
Sawkies,  Pyankeshaws,  and  Miami,  all  living  near  the  Wabash. 
This  was  the  first  opportunity  I  had  of  observing  at  my  leisure  a 
people  who  have  already  become  rare  east  of  the  Allegheny.  It 
was  to  me  a  new  and  most  whimsical  sight.  Bodies  almost  naked, 
tanned  by  the  sun  and  air,  shining  with  grease  and  soot,  head  un- 
covered, hair  coarse,  black,  and  straight,  a  face  smeared  with  red, 
blue,  and  black  paint,  in  patches  of  all  forms  and  sizes  ;  one  nostril 
bored  to  admit  a  ring  of  silver  or  copper  ;  earrings  with  three  rows 
of  drops  down  to  the  shoulders,  and  passing  through  holes  that 
would  admit  a  finger ;  a  little  square  apron  before  and  another 
behind,  fastened  by  the  same  string ;  the  legs  and  thighs  sometimes 
bare  and  sometimes  covered  with  cloth  hose ;  socks  of  smoke- 
dried  leather ;  sometimes  a  shirt  with  short,  loose  sleeves,  and 
flowing  loosely  on  the  thighs,  of  variegated  or  striped  cloth ;  over 


444  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

this  a  blanket  or  a  square  piece  of  cloth  drawn  over  one  shoulder 
and  fastened  under  the  other  or  under  the  chin.  On  solemn  oc- 
casions, or  for  war,  their  hair  is  braided  with  flowers,  feathers,  or 
bones.  The  warriors  have  their  wrists  adorned  with  broad  metal 
rings,  and  a  circle  round  their  heads  of  buckles  or  beads.  They 
carry  in  their  hand  a  pipe,  knife,  or  tomahawk,  and  a  little  look- 
ing-glass, which  they  examined  with  as  much  attention  and  com- 
placency as  any  European  coquette.  The  females  are  a  little  more 
covered  about  the  loins.  They  carry  one  or  two  children  behind 
them  in  a  sort  of  bag,  the  ends  of  which  are  tied  upon  the  fore- 
head.* In  this  aspect  they  have  a  strong  resemblance  to  Gypsies. 
The  men  and  women  roamed  all  day  about  the  town,  merely 
to  get  rum,  for  which  they  eagerly  exchanged  their  peltry,  their 
toys,  their  clothes,  and  at  length  when  they  had  parted  with 
their  all,  they  offered  their  prayers  and  entreaties,  never  ceasing 
to  drink  until  they  had  lost  their  senses.  Hence  arose  ridiculous 
scenes.  They  would  hold  the  cup  with  both  hands,  like  mon- 
keys, burst  into  unmeaning  laughter,  and  gargle  their  beloved 
cup  to  enjoy  the  taste  of  it  the  longer ;  handed  about  the  liquor 
with  clamorous  invitations ;  bawled  at  each  other,  though  close 
together;  seized  their  wives  and  poured  the  liquor  down  their 
throats,  and,  in  short,  displayed  all  the  freaks  of  vulgar  drunken- 
ness. Sometimes  tragical  scenes  ensue;  they  become  mad  or 
stupid,  and,  falling  in  the  dust  or  mud,  lie  a  senseless  log  until 
next  da}'.  We  found  them  in  the  streets  by  dozens  in  the  morn- 
ing, wallowing  in  the  filth  with  the  pigs.  It  was  rare'  for  a  day  to 
pass  without  a  deadly  quarrel,  by  which  about  ten  men  lose  their 
lives  yearly.  A  savage  once  stabbed  his  wife  in  four  places  with 
a  knife,  a  few  paces  from  me.  A  similar  event  took  place  a  fort- 
night before,  and  five  such  the  preceding  year.  For  this  ven- 
geance is  either  immediately  taken,  or  deferred  to  future  opportu- 
nity, by  the  relations  of  the  slain,  which  affords  fresh  cause  for 
bloodshed  and  treachery.  I  at  first  conceived  the  design  of  spend- 
ing a  few  months  among  them,  as  I  had  done  among  the  Bedwins, 
but  I  was  satisfied  with  this  sample,  and  those  the  best  acquainted 
with  them  assured  me  there  was  no  Arabian  hospitality  among 
them,  that  all  was  anarchy  and  disorder.f 

*  Some  Indians  have  a  large  basket  made  of  the  outer  strips  of  the  cane,  with 
a  broad  belt  attached.  The  basket  is  carried  at  the  back,  and  borne  by  the  broad 
belt  passing  across  the  forehead  of  the  woman. 

|  Yet  early  travellers,  as  Carver  and  Bartram,  passed  years  among  the  In- 
dians, and  were  not  molested  or  injured  by  them.  But  Volney  saw  these  Indians 
soon  after  their  defeat  by  Wayne. 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF    AMERICA.  445 

I  chiefly  regretted,  in  abandoning  my  scheme,  the  loss  of  an 
opportunity  for  gaining  some  knowledge  of  their  language  and 
forming  a  vocabulary.  Some  of  the  people  of  Vincennes  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  Indian  dialects,  but  their  pronunciation  is  so 
bad,  and  their  ignorance  of  all  grammatical  distinctions  so  great, 
that  they  could  afford  me  no  aid. 

The  only  person  in  America  capable  of  giving  me  the  aid  I 
wanted  was  a  man  by  the  name  of  Wells,*  who  had  been  made 
captive  by  the  Indians  at  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  having  pre- 
viously had  a  good  education,  he  acquired  an  accurate  knowledge 
of  several  of  their  dialects  while  he  lived  among  them.  After 
the  victories  of  Wayne  in  1794  he  obtained  leave  to  return  home, 
and  was  at  this  time  acting  as  interpreter  to  the  General,  who  was 
negotiating  at  Detroit  with  more  than  seven  hundred  Indians. 

This  agreed  with  my  plan  for  visiting  Niagara.  I  accordingly 
returned  to  Louisville,  and  passed  through  Frankfort,  the  capital 
of  Kentucky,  and  Lexington,  where,  in  1782,  not  a  house  was  to 
be  seen,  but  which  now  contained  near  five  hundred  habitations, 
well  built  of  brick.  Thence  I  went  to  Cincinnati,  and  through 
the  kindness  of  Major  Swan,  availed  myself  of  a  military 
convoy  going  to  Detroit  by  a  road  formed  by  the  army  through 
two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  forest.  Five  palisaded  forts, 
neatly  constructed,  were  the  only  stages  on  this  journey.  There  I 
met  with  a  most  flattering  reception  from  the  commander-in-chief. 
A  severe  fever  and  the  season  deprived  me  of  the  benefits  I  hoped 
from  this  reception. 

1  was  obliged  to  seize  the  only  opportunity  that  offered  for 
crossing  the  lake  before  winter  and  return  to  Philadelphia,  where, 
fortunately,  Mr.  Wells  arrived  in  company  with  a  noted  Miami 
chief,  called  Mishikinakwa,  or  the  Little  Turtle.  It  was  he  who 
contributed  most  to  the  defeat  of  St.  Glair,  and  well-informed 
officers  assured  me  that  had  his  plan  of  waylaying  stragglers  and 
cutting  off  convoys  been  followed,  Wayne's  army  would  probably 
have  shared  the  same  fate.f 

*  Wells  was  one  of  Wayne's  scouts  during  the  campaign  of  1794. 

f  This  remark  of  Volney  conveys  an  erroneous  idea.  General  Wayne  had 
studied  the  errors  of  the  two  preceding  campaigns — Harmar's  and  St.  Glair's — 
and  had  resolved  to  profit  by  them.  He  accepted  the  command  on  condition 
that  he  was  not  to  begin  the  campaign  till  he  judged  proper  to  do  so.  He 
disciplined  his  army.  He  knew  that  it  was  indispensable  for  him  to  use  the 
utmost  caution  in  his  movements  to  guard  against  surprise.  To  secure  his 
army  against  the  possibility  of  being  ambuscaded,  he  employed  a  number  of 
the  best  woodsmen  the  frontiers  afforded,  to  act  as  spies  or  rangers.  Captain 
Ephraim  Kibby,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Columbia,  eight  miles  above  Cin- 


446  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

By  this  accident  I  was  furnished  not  only  with  a  skilful  inter- 
preter, but  with  the  mouth  of  a  native  to  afford  the  true  primitive 
words,  for  I  soon  made  myself  acquainted  with  Mr.  Wells  and 
>  the  chief.  They  readily  concurred  with  my  wishes,  and  nine  or 
ten  visits  in  January  and  February,  1798,  enabled  me  to  draw  up 
a  vocabulary.  This  was  my  principal  purpose,  but  the  course  of 
the  conversation  afforded  me  many  hints  and  facts. 

I  am  neither  able  nor  willing  to  treat  of  savage  nations  in  gen- 
eral. I  shall  merely  speak  of  the  aborigines  of  North  America. 
I  first  conversed  with  them  on  the  climate  and  soil  of  the  Miamis. 
Mr.  Wells  informed  me  that  the  tribe  dwelt  on  the  upper  branches 
of  the  Wabash ;  that  its  language  is  spoken  by  all  the  tribes  of  that 
river,  nearly  to  Lake  Michigan ;  that  its  dialect  is  nearly  allied  to 
that  of  the  Chippewas,  Ottawas  and  Shawanese,  but  quite  distinct 
from  the  Delawares.  The  Miamis  make  much  use  of  the  nasal 
sounds,  and  I  almost  imagined  I  heard  the  Turkish." 

Volney  elsewhere  afterwards  says  :  "I  shall  here  add  a  vocabu- 
lary of  the  Miami  tongue,  a  dialect  which  appears  to  belong  to 
the  language  of  the  Chippewa  tribes,  who,  Mackenzie  tells  us,  be- 
lieve themselves  to  have  originally  come  from  the  northeast  of  Asia. 

The  features  of  Little  Turtle  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  those 
of  some  Chinese  Tartars  who  had  been  brought  to  Philadelphia  by 
Van  Braam,  the  Dutch  ambassador  to  Pekin.  This  likeness  be- 
tween the  Indians  and  Tartars  has  struck  all  who  have  seen  them 
both ;  but,  perhaps,  some  have  too  hastily  inferred  that  the  former 
are  originally  from  Asia.  As  Indians  have  some  notions  of  geog- 
raphy, I  explained  this  theory  to  the  chief,  and  laid  before  him  a 
map  of  the  contiguous  parts  of  Asia  and  America.  He  readily 
recognized  the  great  lakes,  and  the  Ohio,  Wabash,  etc.,  and  the 
rest  he  eyed  with  an  eagerness  which  showed  that  it  was  new  to 
him  ;  but  it  is  a  rule  in  Indian  manners  never  to  betray  surprise. 
When  I  showed  him  the  communication  by  Behring  Strait  and 
the  Aleutian  Isles,  '  Why,'  said  he,  '  should  not  these  Tartars, 
who  are  like  us,  have  gone  first  from  the  American  side  ?  Are 
there  any  proofs  to  the  contrary  ?  Why  should  not  their  fathers 
and  ours  have  been  born  in  our  country?'  The  Indians,  indeed, 
give  themselves  the  name  Metoktheniaka  (born  of  the  soil).* 

cinnati,  who  had  distinguished  himself  as  a  bold  and  intrepid  soldier  in  defend- 
ing that  infant  settlement,  commanded  the  principal  part  of  the  spies.  A  very 
effective  division  of  the  spies  was  commanded  by  Captain  William  Wells.  It 
was  thus  that  General  Wayne  foiled  every  effort  of  the  enemy,  and  conquered. 
*  There  are  Mexican  words,  which  may  be  said  to  resemble  Greek  words,  as 
Tea,  calli,  the  house  of  God;  Metotoemaka,  Indian,  for  born  of  the  soil;  Autochthon, 
Greek,  indigenous,  aboriginal,  resembles  the  preceding  in  sound  and  signification. 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF   AMERICA.  447 

I  have  said  that  the  Indians  resemble  the  Asiatic  Tartars,  but 
some  exceptions  must  be  made,  for  the  Esquimaux  of  the  north 
and  the  gray-eyed  race  near  Nootka  Sound  are  each  a  distinct 
race,  with  no  Tartarian  features.  The  Tartar  face  belongs  only  to 
those  who  people  the  middle  and  southern  regions,  and  who  form 
a  vast  majority.*  This  face  is  not  that  of  the  Calmucks,  whose 
flattened  face  and  nose  are  not  found  among  them.  At  Vincennes 
and  Detroit  I  met  with  faces  that  reminded  me  of  Bedwins  and 
Egyptian  fellahs.  In  the  hue  of  their  skin,  quality  of  hair,  and 
many  other  circumstances,  they  were  alike.  They  likewise  re- 
semble in  having  a  mouth  shaped  like  a  shark's,  the  sides  lower 
than  the  front;  the  teeth  small,  regular,  white  and  very  sharp,  like 
the  tiger's.  I  shall  say  little  of  the  custom  of  the  Choctaws  to 
mould  the  skull  of  the  new-born  child  to  the  shape  of  a  truncated 
pyramid,  by  pressing  them  between  boards.  This  mode  is  so 
effectual  that  the  tribe  is  known  by  the  name  of  Flat  Heads. 

More  accurate  inquiries  must,  however,  be  left  to  the  learned  in 
America,  who  enjoy  the  best  opportunities  of  settling  the  truth. 

Language  is  the  most  instructive  and  unerring  of  all  the  monu- 
ments of  rude  nations.  Dr.  Barton  has  published  a  curious  dis- 
sertation on  this  subject,  in  which  he  compares  several  of  these 
dialects  with  each  other  and  with  those  of  the  Tartarian  nations 
of  Asia.  He  was  aided  in  this  task  by  the  collections  made  by 
Dr.  Pallas  of  words  in  nearly  three  hundred  Asiatic  languages, 
by  order  of  the  Empress  Catherine. 

These  disquisitions  have  led  Dr.  Barton  to  several  important 
conclusions,  though  all  of  them  do  not  appear  to  be  equally  well 
founded.  I  cannot  discover  the  affinity  inferred  by  him  between 
the  languages  of  the  Caribbeans,  Brazilians,  and  Peruvians,  and 
those  of  the  Pottawatomies,  Delawares,  and  the  Six  Nations, 
merely  from  a  likeness  of  between  two  or  three  words.  I  agree 
with  him  more  fully  in  the  resemblance  he  traces  between  the 
latter  and  the  dialects  of  northeastern  Asia.  Much  credit,  how- 
ever, is  due  to  him  for  opening  a  mine  of  valuable  and  curious 
knowledge,  a  mine  which  ought  to  be  explored  more  deeply,  and 
by  the  united  efforts  of  many  learned  men.  In  a  few  ages  the 
red-men  will  probably  perish  forever.  Vast  numbers  have  already 
disappeared,  and  if  the  present  opportunity  be  lost,  the  only  clue 
to  the  affinity  between  the  natives  of  America  and  those  of  the 
northeast  of  Asia  will  be  lost." 

No  one  was,  perhaps,  more  capable  of  recognizing  the  resem- 

*  When  Volney  was  in  the  United  States  their  western  boundary  was  the 
Mississippi  River. 


448  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

blances  of  the  North  American  Indians  to  Egyptians,  Tartars,  and 
Bedwins,  than  Volney,  for  he  was  familiar  with  the  features  of 
these,  and  with  those  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Wabash ;  and  I 
may  add  to  what  he  says  of  these  resemblances  that  the  Scythians, 
Cimmerians,  and  Cimbri,  the  earliest  hordes  of  Central  Asia, 
were,  as  described  by  ancient  historians,  similar  to  the  American 
Indians  in  their  warlike  habits,  dispositions,  and  customs.  I  can 
see  scarcely  any  difference  in  the  features,  complexion  and  char- 
acter of  a  Chinaman  and  a  Choctaw. 

Jefferson,  in  his  "  Notes  on  the  State  of  Virginia,"  says  :  "  The 
great  question  has  arisen,  from  whence  came  these  aboriginals  of 
America?  Discoveries  long  ago  made  were  sufficient  to  show  that 
the  passage  from  Europe  to  America  was  always  practicable,  even 
to  the  imperfect  navigation  of  ancient  times.  Again,  the  late  dis- 
coveries of  Captain  Cook,  coasting  from  Kamschatka  to  Califor- 
nia, have  proven  that  if  the  two  continents  of  Asia  and  America 
are  separated  at  all,  it  is  only  by  a  narrow  strait;  so  that  from 
this  side,  also,  inhabitants  may  have  passed  into  America,  and  the 
resemblance  between  the  Indians  of  America  and  the  eastern  in- 
habitants of  Asia  would  induce  us  to  conjecture  that  the  former 
are  the  descendants  of  the  latter,  or  the  latter  of  the  former,  ex- 
cepting, indeed,  the  Eskimaux,  who,  from  the  same  circumstance 
of  resemblance  and  from  identity  of  language,  must  be  derived 
from  the  Greenlanders,  and  these  probably  from  some  of  the  north- 
ern parts  of  the  old  continent.  A  knowledge  of  these  several 
languages  would  be  the  most  certain  evidence  of  their  derivation 
which  could  be  produced.  In  fact  it  is  the  best  proof  of  the  affin- 
ity of  nations  which  ever  can  be  referred  to.  How  many  ages 
have  elapsed  since  the  English,  the  Dutch,  the  Germans,  the  Swiss, 
the  Norwegians,  Danes,  and  Swedes  have  separated  from  their 
common  stock?  Yet  how  many  more  must  elapse  before  the 
proofs  of  their  common  origin,  which  exists  in  their  several  lan- 
guages, will  disappear?  It  is  to  be  lamented,  then,  very  much  to 
be  lamented,  that  we  have  suffered  so  many  Indian  tribes  already 
to  be  extinguished  without  our  having  previously  collected  and 
deposited  in  the  records  of  literature  the  general  rudiments,  at 
least,  of  the  language  they  spoke.  Were  vocabularies  formed  of 
all  the  languages  spoken  in  North  and  South  America,  preserving 
the  appellations  of  the  most  common  objects  of  nature,  of  those 
which  must  be  present  to  every  nation,  barbarous  or  civilized, 
with  the  inflections  of  their  nouns  and  verbs,  their  principles  of 
regimen  and  concord,  and  these  deposited  in  all  the  public  libra- 
ries, it  would  furnish  opportunities  to  those  skilled  in  the  Ian- 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF    AMERICA.  449 

guages  of  the  Old  World  to  compare  them  with  these  now,  or  at 
any  future  time,  and  hence  construct  the  best  evidence  of  the 
derivation  of  this  part  of  the  human  race. 

But  imperfect  as  is  our  knowledge  of  the  languages  spoken  in 
America,  it  suffices  to  discover  the  following  remarkable  fact. 
Arrange  them  under  the  radical  ones  to  which  they  may  be  palpa- 
bly traced,  and  doing  the  same  with  those  of  the  red  men  of  Asia, 
there  will  be  found,  probably,  twenty  in  America  for  one  in  Asia 
of  those  radical  languages,  so  called,  because  if  they  were  ever  the 
same  they  had  lost  all  resemblance  to  one  another.  A  separation 
into  dialects  may  be  the  work  of  a  few  ages  only,  but  for  two  dia- 
lects to  recede  from  one  another  till  they  have  lost  all  vestiges  of 
their  common  origin  must  require  an  immense  course  of  time, 
perhaps  not  less  than  many  people  give  to  the  age  of  the  earth. 
A  greater  number  of  those  radical  changes  of  language  having 
taken  place  among  the  red  men  of  America  proves  them  of  greater 
antiquity  than  .those  of  Asia."* 

To  the  views  of  Charlevoix,  Volney  and  Jefferson  may  appro- 
priately be  added  those  of  President  D.  S.  Jordan,  of  the  Leland 
Stanford  University,  on  the  "  Urgent  Needs  of  a  National  Uni- 
versity," contained  in  the  "  Forum  "  of  January,  1897,  from  which 
the  following  is  quoted  : 

"  Ever  since  the  time  of  Washington  our  law-givers  have  con- 
templated building  a  university  at  the  nation's  capital.  For  more 
than  a  century  wise  men  have  kept  this  project  in  mind.  For 
more  than  a  century  wise  men  have  seen  the  pressing  need  of  its 
accomplishment.  For  more  than  a  century,  however,  the  exi- 
gencies of  politics  or  the  indifference  of  political  managers  have 
caused  postponement  of  its  final  consideration. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  bring  arguments  to  show  the  need 
of  a  National  University  in  the  United  States.  In  its  very  defini- 
tion a  university  must  be  above  and  beyond  all  sectarianism. 
Truth  is  as  broad  as  the  universe.  It  is  said  that  in  America  we 
already  have  some  four  hundred  colleges  and  universities,  and 
that,  therefore,  we  do  not  need  any  more.  Quite  true ;  we  need 
no  more  like  these.  The  splendid  achievement  and  noble  promise 
of  our  universities  are  not  due  to  their  number.  Many  of  them  do 
not  show  this  promise.  If  such  were  to  close  their  doors  to-morrow, 
education  would  be  the  gainer  by  it.  Many  of  the  four  hundred, 
as  we  well  know,  are  not  universities  in  fact  or  in  spirit,  but  in  a 
certain  number  of  the  strongest  and  freest  the  genuine  university 

*  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on  the  State  of  Virginia." 
29 


450  THE    INDIAN    AND    ANTIQUITIES  [CHAP.  XLI. 

spirit  is  found  in  the  highest  degree.  For  more  of  these  good  ones 
there  is  a  crying  demand.  Their  very  promise  is  a  reason  why  we 
should  do  everything  possible  to  make  them  better.  A  school  can 
rise  to  be  a  university  only  when  its  teachers  are  university  men — 
when  they  are  men  trained  to  face  directly  and  effectively  the 
problems  of  nature  and  of  life.  To  give  such  training  is  the  work 
of  the  university. 

A  great  university  at  the  capital  of  the  Republic  would  attract 
the  free-minded  of  all  the  earth.  It  should  fill,  with  noble  ade- 
quacy, the  place  which  the  graduate  departments  of  our  real  uni- 
versities partially  occupy.  Great  libraries  and  adequate  facilities 
for  work  are  costly,  and  no  American  institution  has  yet  gathered 
together  such  essentials  for  university  work  as  already  exist  at 
Washington.  The  National  Museum  and  the  Army  Medical  Mu- 
seum far  exceed  all  other  similar  collections  in  America  in  the 
amount  and  value  of  the  material  gathered  for  investigation.  The 
Library  of  Congress  is  our  greatest  public  library,  and  in  the  na- 
ture of  things  it  will  always  remain  so.  The  Geological  Survey, 
the  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and  the  biological  divisions  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  are  constantly  engaged  in  investiga- 
tions of  the  highest  order,  conducted  by  men  of  university  train- 
ing, and  possible  to  no  other  men.  The  United  States  Fish  Com- 
mission is  the  source  of  a  vast  part  of  our  knowledge  of  the  sea 
and  of  sea  life.  Besides  these  there  are  many  other  bureaus  and 
divisions  in  which  scientific  inquiry  constitutes  the  daily  routine. 
The  work  of  these  departments  should  be  made  useful,  not  only 
in  its  conclusions,  but  in  its  methods.  A  university  consists  of 
investigators  teaching.  All  that  the  national  capital  needs  to 
make  a  great  university  of  it  is  that  a  body  of  real  scholars  should 
be  maintained  to  teach  other  men  in  the  work  now  so  worthily 
carried  on.  But  a  National  University  must  spring  from  the  peo- 
ple. It  must  be  paid  for  by  them,  and  it  must  have  its  final  jus- 
tification in  the  upbuilding  of  the  nation.  Whatever  institutions 
the  people  need  the  people  must  create  and  control.  With  all 
their  mistakes  and  crudities  the  State  universities  of  this  country 
constitute  the  most  hopeful  feature  in  our  whole  educational  sys- 
tem. Doubtless  the  weakness  and  folly  of  the  people  have  af- 
fected them  injuriously  from  time  to  time.  This  is  not  the  point. 
We  must  think  of  the  effect  they  have  had  in  curing  the  people 
of  weakness  and  folly. 

All  plans  for  a  National  University  provide  for  a  non-partisan 
board  of  control.  Its  ex-officio  members  are  to  be  chosen  from  the 
ablest  jurists  and  wisest  men  of  science  the  country  can  claim. 


CHAP.  XLI.]  OF    AMERICA.  451 

Such  a  board  now  controls  the  Smithsonian  Institution  and  the 
National  Museum,  and  no  accusation  of  partisanship  or  favoritism 
has  ever  been  brought  against  it.  A  university  could  not  be  oth- 
erwise than  free.  Its  faculty  could  respond  only  to  the  noblest 
influences.  No  man  could  receive  an  appointment  of  national 
prominence  in  the  face  of  glaring  unfitness,  and  each  man  chosen 
to  a  position  in  a  national  faculty  would  feel  the  honor  of  his  pro- 
fession at  stake  in  repelling  all  degrading  influences.  No  body  of 
men  is  so  insusceptible  to  coercion  or  contamination  as  a  univer- 
sity faculty.  A  scholar  is  a  free  man.  He  has  always  been  so. 
He  will  always  remain  so.  In  the  long  run  the  voters  of  a  nation 
must  be  led  by  its  wisest  men.  Their  wisdom  must  become  the 
wisdom  of  the  many,  else  the  nation  will  perish.  There  is  no  in- 
strument of  political,  social  or  administrative  reform  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  influence  of  a  National  University." 


'ER% 

ip 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


FOB^ 


PSD  2343    9/77 


OF-CAI 


SNg    U 


^OF-CAUFOgto 

§  fiU^l 

& 

c-i       i§ 


3  1158  00483  7323 

i^n 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001096091    2 
I   t  ; 


^5>         "**^   ^      ^  * 
<T?13DNV-SO^       3$3 


A\\EtNIVER% 
®,   .     ^o 


UCE± 


